Free Republic

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, were supposed to meet on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Canada, one day after Trump complained that Russia should never have been removed from the organization. But Trump's premature departure from the summit on Monday, citing Israel's war with Iran in the Middle East, upended those plans and Zelensky's latest opportunity to plead his country's case to the president, proving Zelensky's challenge is not only Trump himself but his many competing priorities. During last year’s campaign, Trump promised he would end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first...

Russian forces have continued to advance in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, bringing the regional capital within range of their drones and artillery, according to Ukrainian officials and analysts.A spokesman for the Ukrainian military in the area, Ivan Shevtsov, said that in addition to trying to advance towards Sumy city, Russian forces were constantly shelling the area and more evacuations of civilians were taking place.“At the moment, the territory that the enemy has already occupied is about 15 kilometers along the front line and about 6-7 kilometers deep,” Shevtsov said. He added that the Russians were trying to advance...

President Trump was not informed of a recent Ukrainian attack on Russia, The Hill’s sister network NewsNation confirmed Sunday.An administration official told NewsNation’s Tanya Noury that the president was not given a heads-up about the drone attack that a Ukrainian security official alleged destroyed more than 40 planes well within Russian territory, according to The Associated Press.The AP reported Sunday that the Ukrainian attack was worked on for one and a half years, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally supervising it, per the security official.“We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state, and our people. I outlined the...

ATTENTION!So, it appears Zelenskyy gave the go ahead to attack parked Russian nuclear capable bombers without informing @realDonaldTrump (if true that our President was not consulted nor informed, this isn’t simply a breach of protocol. It’s a geopolitical insult and a warning sign. If Ukraine is willing to conduct strikes with strategic consequences without notifying the White House, we are no longer allies with coordination issues—we are co-belligerents flying blind).Also given Senator “warmonger” Lindsey Graham’s and Senator “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal’s recent visit, this attack could appear as though it was sanctioned. I pray the Russians have better intelligence than...

Hand it to the Ukrainians: They’re not only fighting heroically on, more than three years after Moscow launched its savage and utterly unprovoked war to destroy their nation, they’re fighting with cheek and style. The latest, of course, is Sunday’s surprise drone strikes on airbases deep inside Russia, targeting strategic warplanes that have been pummeling mostly-civilian targets in Ukraine. It counts as an intelligence coup, too: The drones were infiltrated to near their final targets over months, with Vladimir Putin’s massive internal-surveillance agencies left utterly in the dark. Then again, Vlad’s secret police were caught clueless back when the Wagner...

A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia's territory, a Ukrainian security official told The Associated Press on Sunday, while Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones a day before the two sides meet for a new round of direct talks in Istanbul. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose operational details, said the attack took over 1 1/2-year to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41...

Ukrainian forces target 5 airfields deep inside Russia, striking 40 aircraft including bombers and reconnaissance planes Ukrainian forces destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes with a drone attack on air bases deep within Russian territory on Sunday. Ukrainian forces destroyed 40 aircraft in the attack, which an official says took more than a year to orchestrate. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the attack on Sunday, saying it struck five airfields. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41 planes stationed at several airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95...

Ukraine launched a "large-scale" drone attack deep into Russian territory that security officials claim destroyed 40 military bombers as it gears up for another round of talks in Istanbul to explore prospects of a ceasefire. A Ukrainian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that the attack took over a year and a half to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones hit airfields including the Belaya air base in Russia's Irkutsk region, more...

Wherin Ukies neglect to fortify the Kharkov region and then embark upon a maximal campaign of provocation in the region...

Russian President defies reports of counter offensives to personally deliver Easter greetings to the troops. In the second time in as many months, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a visit to the newly annexed areas of Kherson and Lugansk, having visited Mariupol last month. He traveled by helicopter in spite of threats of a spring counter offensive by Ukrainian forces to receive personally progress reports from the military authorities in the regions, demonstrating that Russia is in control of these regions and no threat is serious enough to prevent him visiting at will. After receiving progress reports, the President congratulated...

Two Russian men who claim to be former Wagner Group commanders have told a human rights activist that they killed children and civilians during their time in Ukraine. The claims were made in video interviews with Gulagu.net, a human rights organization targeting corruption and torture in Russia. In the video interviews posted online, former Russian convicts Azamat Uldarov and Alexey Savichev – who were both pardoned by Russian presidential decrees last year, according to Gulagu.net – describe their actions in Ukraine, during Russia’s invasion. CNN cannot independently verify their claims or identities in the videos but has obtained Russian penal...

Hollywood star Mark Hamill, best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, ended up committing quite a blunder after he participated in a video chat with members of Ukrainian armed forces. During said chat, a fragment of which Hamill shared on Twitter, Hamill praised the Ukrainian militants who he claimed were "fighting the good fight" and compared Ukrainian forces to the rebels from Star Wars. "It was a pleasure meeting with the brave Ukrainian drone operators. We talked about the challenges they face on a daily basis, but they also wanted to talk about Wookiees...

The photographed tank appears to be from the 1950s with no modern upgrades The first of several hundred 70-year-old Soviet-era Russian tanks appears to have been deployed to Ukraine, as the Kremlin desperately replenish its depleted resources. An image appeared on Friday which showed a T-55 Soviet tank located in Zaporizhzhia, an oblast in southern Ukraine, weeks after they were videoed on their way to the war-torn country. The photographed tank appears to be from the 1950s and shows no modern upgrades - suggesting that Russia is shipping the decrepit machinery in an attempt to aid its war effort. The...

We’ve touched in these pages — one of our earliest posts, in fact — on Soviet war heroine Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a teenager executed by the advancing German army in November 1941 for conducting partisan attacks behind enemy lines. Zoya’s story became known after the Red Army recaptured village of Petrishchevo, where she was hanged. A January 27, 1942 Pravda article recounted the gallows defiance of the young guerrilla, whom villagers knew only by her nom de guerre, “Tanya”. She had withstood German torture, refused to give them any information, and at her hanging incited her countrymen and -women to resist...

Bungling commanders sent them to help failing frontline infantry, leaked US documents reveal This is after Russian commanders sent Spetsnaz troops into direct combat Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has devastated Russia's clandestine special (Spetsnaz) forces, classified American documents that were leaked online reported. The leak first became widely known about a week ago. But the revelations have also demonstrated how deep American spy networks have infiltrated the Kremlin's own intelligence agencies and military command structure. And to compound the Kremlin's own embarrassment, the documents have also provided a damning assessment of Russia's own military capabilities. The deployment of Spetsnaz...

In a recent post on his blog, Seymour Hersh writes that Ukrainian President Zelensky embezzled $400 million from the US that was allocated to Ukraine for fuel. This isn’t the first time that we have heard about corruption in Ukraine. In 2019 The Gateway Pundit reported on Ukrainian businessman Igor Kolomoisky, who controlled Ukraine’s largest commercial bank, Privat Bank. This bank was said to control Burisma, the oil and gas company that gave Hunter Biden millions. John Kerry was involved in Burisma as well. There were reports that Kolmiosky somehow lost $1.8 billion of the bank’s money. It was suspected...

The father of a a Russian girl sent to an orphanage after drawing an antiwar sketch at school has been extradited from Belarus back to Russia...He faces two years in prison...Alexei Moskalyov fled house arrest just before his sentencing hearing last month in the town of Yefremov, south of Moscow. He was detained in Belarus...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov may not be able to attend when the UN Security Council meets in the United States later in April. He has not yet been granted a visa to enter the United States writes Svenska Dagbladet with reference to the Russian news agency Tass. "No visa has been issued yet. Not a single visa has been issued," Lavrov told the news agency. The Security Council has a rotating presidency, and Russia currently holds the presidency and Lavrov is the chairman. [Original text in Swedish - translation by SB]

Sen. Rand Paul’s heated opposition to a TikTok ban startled Capitol Hill last week, but you could look at it as a straightforward case of following the money, according to insiders – in this case, the money of a major GOP donor who has $33 billion on the line. The gentleman from Kentucky – who has made his career partly as a China hawk – surprised colleagues on the Senate floor last week when he blocked Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s hopes for fast-tracked legislation to ban TikTok. “Speech is protected whether you like it or not,” Rand said, jumping...

The head of Russia's private Wagner militia said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were not leaving the city of Bakhmut and fighting was continuing in the western part of the city. "It must be said clearly that the enemy is not going anywhere," Yevgeny Prigozhin said on his Telegram channel. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had on Wednesday raised the prospect of a possible withdrawal from the city, saying Kyiv would take the "corresponding" decisions if its forces in the city risked being encircled by Russian troops. The months-long battle for Bakhmut, one of the last urban centres in Ukraine's eastern...