Free Republic

The devastating efficacy of the US Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) has been revealed in heart-pounding new footage from the frontlines of Ukraine. An incredible clip shared by Ukraine's 109th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade showed how the expertly piloted Bradley saved a troop of Kyiv's soldiers from certain death, reducing three Russian BMP-2 armoured vehicles to smouldering wrecks. The unit was defending the village of Stepove in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region when a group of Russian armour descended on their location, ready to rain down cannon fire on the Ukrainian positions. Footage showed a trio of BMPs motoring towards the...

An Israeli missile attack that killed a senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in Syria last week has sparked criticism of the military partnership between Russia and Iran. On 25 December, Seyyed Reza Mousavi, a key figure in shaping Iran's military presence in Syria, was killed in a missile strike on his residence in the Zainabiyah neighbourhood of Damascus. Although it wasn't the first time that Israel had targeted Iranian forces in Syria, this incident has drawn attention to Russia's failure to deploy its advanced S-300 anti-missile defence system in support of Iran, its primary...

Vladimir Putin has boasted that his country's alliance with Iran has turned the tide of the war in Ukraine as he warmly welcomed Iran's president to the Kremlin, where the pair also discussed the Israel-Hamas war. The despot conveyed his thanks Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for catalysing 'good momentum' in the assault on Ukraine - despite reports of heavy Russian losses in recent weeks and months. Tehran has been supplying Russia with a steady supply of weapons, including artilley shells, bullets and highly destructive kamikaze drones - and has quickly become one of the Kremlin's closest military allies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin bizarrely refused to stand within 70ft of Britain's new ambassador to Moscow at a diplomatic ceremony yesterday - blaming 'sanitary reasons'. In awkward scenes that resembled the height of the Covid pandemic, Putin insisted on keeping a huge distance between himself and other diplomats at the Kremlin event which saw him accept the diplomatic credentials of several new ambassadors to Russia, including Britain's new man in Moscow Nigel Casey.

This week’s “No Shit Analysis” award goes to Eugene B. Rumer for his Wall Street Journal op-ed, It’s Time to End Magical Thinking About Russia’s Defeat. Only took him 22 months to figure this out. He may be a slow learner but give him some credit, he finally awakened from his dream world and is beginning to grasp that the Ukraine project is swirling down the toilet.Eugene B. Rumer is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, Washington DC. Previously, he served at the State Department, on the staff of the National Security Council...

Nikolai Patrushev gives speech about Putin in past tense Vladimir Putin's rumoured death has taken a stunning new twist after his top security aide and the man tipped to succeed Russia's president referred to him entirely in the past tense during a bizarre speech. Speculation has swirled around Putin after General SVR, a Telegram channel thought to be left by a Kremlin insider, claimed he died from a heart attack and that body doubles had been put in his place. The Kremlin has furiously denied the rumours. B‌ut Nikolai Patrushev – a former head of the FSB security service who...