Free Republic

Vladimir Putin has sought to shift blame for Ukraine's surprise incursion into the Kursk region, as evidence emerged that his country's handling of the offensive was damaging the Russian leader's image. At a virtual meeting held by Putin Thursday on the situation in Russia's Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions, which border Ukraine, the president told regional officials that the "security issues" in Kursk "are problems that are the responsibility of the security agencies." -snip- "I hope that, as was reported today, interaction between local and regional authorities, the government, and security agencies has been established, and this will also play...

Ukrainian troops are rolling deeper and deeper inside Russia! Russian generals are incompetent, the propaganda is in shock and Putin is silent! One military spokesman reassures Russians that all is well, and they should get some popcorn and enjoy watching the military crush this incursion. That was two weeks ago. Russia has some of its troops doing a joint military exercise with Mongolia as all this occurs, showing it on Russian TV.

Rumours of Vladimir Putin body doubles have been circulating for a while and now speculation is rife about the Russian president again. Putin visited Baku, Azerbaijan, between August 18 and 19 to discuss Armenian settlement with the President of Azerbaijan. But some people have noticed there is a problem with Putin’s face in comparison to a meeting he held with the Russian security council just a few days prior. This includes Anton Herashchenko, a former advisor to Ukraine’s government, who is convinced Putin appeared as a body double in Baku. He posted: ‘Putin in Baku looks different from Putin at...

Vladimir Putin is feeling the stress from Russia's invasion of Ukraine - as he is seen wringing his hands in a meeting with his top officials after Volodymyr Zelenskyy's troops bit back and made a counter-incursion into the country. The dictator, 71, was in a security council session on the crisis he faces due to Ukraine's dramatic invasion of the border areas of Kursk region. His very public hand-wringing and fidgeting came as he was told earlier this week about how Russia had lost territory to Kyiv troops and - at the time - more than two dozen settlements, a...

Russia is “rapidly approaching” a key military hub in eastern Ukraine, a local official has said, as Moscow continues its advances despite Kyiv’s surprise gains in its enemy’s Kursk region.While Pokrovsk is not a major city – about 60,000 people lived there before the war and many have left since the start of the full-scale invasion – it serves as a key hub for the Ukrainian military thanks to its easy access to Kostiantynivka, another military center.Ukrainian troops use the road connecting the two to resupply the front lines and evacuate casualties toward Dnipro.Serhii Dobriak, head of the Pokrovsk city...

Secretive peace talks between Ukraine and Russia collapsed before they even started following Kyiv's incursion into the Kursk region last week. The two countries were set to hold indirect talks in Qatar on a deal to halt strikes on energy and power infrastructure, in a first step towards a partial-ceasefire. However, Russian officials were said to be furious at Ukraine’s surprise incursion, according to the Washington Post, which revealed the secret Doha talks. Moscow’s delegation described it as “an escalation" and immediately pulled out of the talks this week. A Qatari diplomat said that Russia “didn’t call off the talks,...

Ukrainian forces destroyed a bridge over the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district in Russia's Kursk Oblast, Alexey Smirnov, the region's acting governor, claimed on Aug. 16. The unprecedented operation hit its 10-day mark on Aug. 15, with Kyiv claiming to have seized 1,150 square kilometers of Russian territory and 82 settlements, including the town of Sudzha. Photos purporting to show the destroyed bridge were published by the Russian Telegram channel Mash, which claimed the bridge had been struck multiple times. The channel also claimed that about 30 settlements near the village of Glushkovo, approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) from...

KYIV, Ukraine — The success of Ukraine’s secret incursion into Russia is clear. Ukrainian forces pushed past two lines of Russian defenses in the southwestern region of Kursk and moved through Russian highways and villages with little resistance. Since the operation began 11 days ago, they have gone beyond Kursk to the neighboring region of Belgorod, putting other communities on edge and rattling Moscow.The ultimate strategy and goals of the invasion, though, are still murky. Western allies, including the United States and Germany, say they are watching and monitoring the situation but letting Ukraine lead the way. Even the Ukrainian...

The head of a Russian private militia has called on the army to overthrow Vladimir Putin in what is potentially shaping up to be the biggest threat of revolt the Kremlin has faced since the Wagner mutiny last year. Georgy Zakrevsky is the founder of the Paladin PMC, one of many shadowy military groups like the former Wagner militia, that are loosely linked to the Kremlin. The private military company (PMC) has around 300 members and has fought in wars around the world, including in Syria and Africa. Zakrevsky launched a blistering attack on the Russian president during a video...

-snip- After my first trip to Ukraine, a few readers wrote in or left comments urging me to check out the assessments of retired colonel Douglas Macgregor, contending he had the real scoop. I wasn’t familiar with Macgregor, but a bit of digging illuminated the retired colonel’s very consistent assessment of how the war is going: March 4, 2022: “The first five days Russian forces I think frankly were too gentle. They’ve now corrected that. So, I would say, another ten days, this should be completely over.” March 15, 2022: “The Ukrainians are being crushed. Even the Washington Post and...

Terrified dictator Alexander Lukashenko has urged Russia and Ukraine to agree a peace deal to avoid the war spilling over into Belarus. President Lukashenko, a key ally of Vladimir Putin, said he fears Kyiv's troops are now planning an incursion into his nation after they launched a cross-border offensive in Russia. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers smashed through Russia's western border on August 6 in a major embarrassment for Putin's top military brass. Now in an interview with Russia state television, Lukashenko has said that only 'high-ranking people of American origin' wanted the Ukraine-Russia war to continue. The West, he said,...

Russell Bentley, the so-called "Donbass Cowboy" from Texas who fought for the 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DPR), is reported to have been tortured to death in an abandoned mine being used as a concentration camp for 'remotivating' Russian soldiers who refuse to fight. On 8 April 2024, Bentley was kidnapped by DPR soldiers outside the administration building of the Petrovsky district of Donetsk. He was driven away in an unknown direction. On 19 April, his former unit, the Vostok Battalion, confirmed his death. His body has not been found. ASTRA reports that he was electrocuted during torture by men from the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a big promise when he launched his war on Ukraine: conscripts would not be involved in combat. But as Moscow struggles to contain Ukrainian advances deeper into its territory, families of young soldiers deployed in the area are raising the alarm about their loved ones. Messages shared in Russian Telegram channels and other social media over the past few days have revealed how unprepared Moscow was for this kind of attack, including the fact that its military had left poorly trained conscripts in charge of defending the border with Ukraine – the country Russia has...

While Belarus’s Lukashenko has commented on the cross-border attacks, Central Asian nations stay mum. Almost two years ago, a dozen Uzbek youngsters pleaded with their president to save them from the horrors of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Uzbek nationals enrolled in western Russia’s Kursk Medical University recorded a video address to Shavkat Mirziyoyev in October 2022 saying their studies had been affected by Kyiv’s shelling of nearby towns and the hostilities in the neighbouring Ukrainian region of Sumy. “Please transfer us to medical schools in Uzbekistan,” one of the students said. Uzbek diplomats pledged to assess the situation. There have been...

Ukraine's top commander said on Thursday Kyiv had set up a military commandant's office in the occupied part of Russia's Kursk region where he said his forces were still advancing, even as Moscow's troops stepped up its offensives in Ukraine's east. The remarks by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi were the strongest sign yet that Kyiv's forces plan to dig in after launching a lightning cross-border assault on Russia last week that has opened a new front in the 2-1/2 year-old all-out war. "We are moving forward in Kursk region. A military commandant's office has been created which must ensure order...

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine should negotiate an end to their conflict to avoid the war spilling over into Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally of Vladimir Putin, said in an interview with Russian state television. Lukashenko was speaking against the backdrop of a Ukrainian incursion into Russia that began on Aug. 6 when thousands of Kyiv's troops smashed through Russia's western border in a major embarrassment for Putin's top military brass. In a wide-ranging interview, Lukashenko said that only "high-ranking people of American origin" wanted the Ukraine-Russia war to continue. The West, he said, was encouraging Kyiv...