Free Republic

Czech President Petr Pavel said that attacking the Nord Stream pipelines would have been a “legitimate” target for Ukraine amid reports pointing the finger at Kyiv for the sabotage. Pavel, who previously served as NATO chairman and before that at the head of the Czech Armed Forces, said that while he has no information to confirm reports that the Zelensky-led government in Ukraine was behind the September 2022 assault on the Russo-German Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, such an attack would have been justifiable in light of the Russian invasion months prior. Speaking to the online news magazine Novinky...

MADRID (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday secured from Spain a pledge of additional air defense missiles to help fight the about 3,000 bombs that he says Russia launches every month at Ukraine in the third year of the war. However, Ukraine still urgently needs another seven U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to stop Russia hitting the power grid and civilian areas, as well as military targets, with devastating glide bombs that wreak wide destruction, Zelenskyy said. “If we had these modern Patriot systems, (Russian) airplanes wouldn´t be able to fly close enough to drop the (glide) bombs...

Poland's Tusk Denies Claim Putin Offered To Partition Ukraine October 24, 2014 Poland's former prime minister, Donald Tusk, has denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Russia and Poland carve up Ukraine. Tusk told Polish Radio TOK-FM on October 24 that Putin never made such an offer to him. The claim was made by former foreign minister Radek Sikorsk,i who said in an interview with the U.S. internet magazine Politico on October 19 that the offer was made in a one-on-one meeting between Tusk and Putin in Moscow in 2008. But Sikorski later backed away from the allegation, saying...

Ukraine on Friday finalized a European Union trade agreement, the deal that led to the ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych and a Russia-fueled national crisis earlier this year. President Petro Poreshenko, elected in May, called the agreement a huge step forward for the country. "This is one of the most important days in the time since Ukraine won independence. We use this possibility to modernize the country," he said, according to reports. "But we need only one thing — peace and security." The deal would allow free trade between the Ukraine and the European Union and would require Ukraine...

A Gestapo officer forced Jewish author and artist Bruno Schulz to paint fairy tale characters on the walls of a nursery in an occupied Polish village in 1941. A Nazi sergeant shot and killed Schulz a year later, and his colorful murals were forgotten for decades. Israel's Holocaust museum presented Schulz's paintings on Friday, eight years after their discovery sparked a diplomatic row over their ownership.

The first Russian new martyr of hierarchichal rank was the Very Most-Reverend Vladimir, who in the world had been Basil Nikiforovitch Bogoyavlensky. He was born on January 2, 1848 into the family of a priest in Little Morshanka, Morshansk district, Tambov province. He was educated at the Tambov seminary, and then at the Kiev Theological Academy. Upon graduation in 1874, he was first appointed a teacher of homiletics at his old seminary. In 1888, he discontinued his work at the seminary, and was ordained to the priesthood. He served at the Holy Protection Cathedral Church, in the city of Kozlov,...