Free Republic

In 2020, just 246 people tried to sneak into Poland from Belarus through the marshy wetlands on the border, according to the Polish government’s records. There was a pandemic on, after all. But over the following year, almost 40,000 migrants from Syria, Somalia, Iran, Afghanistan, India and other countries crossed or attempted to cross this frontier. Those migrants didn’t end up in Belarus by accident. Some were carrying Russian visas or entry stamps. Russia and its ally — some would say lackey — Belarus were, in effect, importing migrants, delivering them to the Polish-Belarusian border and telling them to head...

Riding a wave of political momentum in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky, a showman turned wartime leader, could have hardly imagined the path his presidency would take. Some argue that Zelensky's 2019 election was less of an endorsement of his political platform, a populist one, rather a rejection of the old entrenched elite seen as ineffective and corrupt. Years later, Zelensky still faces the domestic challenges that confronted his predecessors — issues he once promised to resolve. On the international stage, however, he has amassed significant support for Ukraine, actively working to maintain global backing as his country defends itself against a...

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday Moscow had information that Ukraine planned to launch military drones from Latvia and other Baltic states, warning that ​membership in NATO would not protect those countries from retaliation. The ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, ‌speaking during a UN Security Council meeting on security in Ukraine, said Kyiv had already dispatched Ukrainian drone forces to Latvia and Russian intelligence could determine the launch sites for such aircraft. "The foreign intelligence of Russia ​did say that the coordinates of decision-making centers in Latvia are well known, and membership ​in NATO will not protect you from...

Russia has unleashed rare attacks on international civilian shipping approaching Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea on Monday, hitting at least two vessels in the Odesa region, including a cargo ship owned by a Chinese company and crewed by Chinese nationals, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine’s navy said one strike hit the KSL Deyang, a Chinese-owned cargo ship with a Chinese crew sailing under a Marshall Islands flag, as it approached ports in the region and posted images showing scorch damage to the ship’s hull. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that a Russian drone had struck a vessel owned by...

MOSCOW, May 14 (Reuters) - Russia is establishing a "full-fledged partnership" with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and is encouraging ‌other countries in the region to expand cooperation ‌with Kabul, a senior Russian security official was quoted on Thursday ​as saying. Russia last year became the first country to formally recognise the Islamist Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal ‌from Afghanistan after ⁠20 years of war. Interfax news agency quoted Russian official Sergei Shoigu as saying cooperation ⁠with Kabul was important for the security and development of the region. Shoigu, who is secretary...

The House will have to take up a major security package for war-torn Ukraine after enough Republicans joined Democrats to give the needed 218 signatures to force a vote. A vote is likely to come in the next few weeks on the package that would marshal $1.3 billion in security aid to Ukraine and allow the war-torn country to get up to $8 billion in additional loan support. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced the bill in the House last year, where it sat for months. It would also slap tighter sanctions...

Former presidential spokesman Iuliia Mendel accused the Ukrainian president of prolonging the war with Russia to preserve his political position, while alleging corruption, propaganda tactics, and growing authoritarianism inside Ukraine. Former Ukrainian presidential press secretary Iuliia Mendel has launched a scathing attack on President Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing him of prolonging the war with Russia for political survival and personal enrichment, while claiming that many ordinary Ukrainians and officials increasingly desire peace. Speaking in an interview with American commentator Tucker Carlson, published on Monday, May 11th, Mendel—who served as Zelensky’s spokesman between 2019 and 2021—described her former employer as “one of...

President Volodymyr Zelensky's former chief of staff has been charged with money laundering tied to the construction of a luxury residential compound outside Kyiv, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said in a statement. Although not named in SAPO's statement, the chief of staff in question is Andriy Yermak, a source in law enforcement familiar with the case told the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) allege that more than Hr 460 million ($8.9 million) was funneled through the project over several years using a network of shell companies, cash transactions, and...

NATO/EU/eurowanker house of cards falling apart...

Laurel/Hardy vision of warfare,,,,

Ukraine now about where Japan was in July 1945...

Ukraine collapse in progress... Zelensky may have to go back to his XXX-rated Vaudeville acts.....

@RepDonBacon Mr President, your policy towards Russia is not working. While we negotiate, Putin bombs Ukrainian cities. Here is Kyiv today. It is time to change strategy. We and our allies must arm Ukraine to the teeth & we need the toughest sanctions. Putin is mocking you and America.

What happens when all of the men of marriageable age in a country get killed of in a neocon proxy war....If memory serves, there used to be a little gaggle of ukraine/zelensky supporters on FR calling themselves "zeepers" or something like that....

Zelensky's version of the battle of the bulge....

Putin CRUSHES Trump's Ceasefire Trap, Ukraine's Army COLLAPSES in Kursk!My prediction: By 2050 even Wikipedia won't know what the word "ukraine" might have ever meant....

Almost all of the European Prime Ministers and Presidents are meeting today in London coming up with a cease fire plan for Ukraine. Sir Keir Starmer is stepping up with Ground Troops and an Air Force to enforce whatever cease fire agreement gets negotiated. Considering the state of the UK military I wonder how this will work out and what UK citizens will think about this.

Conflict will end on Russian terms, and soon

It was all over in record short time. Russia’s annual Victory Day on Red Square ended after only 45 minutes with no displays of any of the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR) military hardware and under extremely tight security. Tensions were running extremely high following the threat of a possible Ukrainian drone attack on the event that commemorates the end of WWII, known as the Great Patriotic war in Russia, and one of the most significant events on the Russian public calendar... Ukraine threat Security at the event was overwhelming. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived with a very large security...

Content evoking the Soviet era is becoming increasingly common on social media... "Nostalgic content aimed at young people — showing Soviet-era interiors or images of panel apartment blocks, paired with audio and instructions on how they should be viewed — would have seemed bizarre 15 years ago. Now it has become a trend," says Marleen Mihhailova, a junior researcher in semiotics at University of Tartu... What motivated Mihhailova to study the topic, however, was specifically an interest in young people's nostalgia, since they have no firsthand experience of the Soviet period. She interviewed 10 young people born after 1990, half...