Free Republic

Two Russians who said they fled the country to avoid compulsory military service have requested asylum in the U.S. after landing on a remote Alaskan island in the Bering Sea, Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office said Thursday. Karina Borger, a spokesperson for Murkowski, said by email that the office has been in communication with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection and that “the Russian nationals reported that they fled one of the coastal communities on the east coast of Russia to avoid compulsory military service.” Spokespersons with the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection each...

A Russian-installed official in Ukraine on Thursday suggested President Vladimir Putin's defence minister should consider killing himself due to the shame of the defeats in the Ukraine war, an astonishing public insult to Russia's top brass. -snip- Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the annexed Kherson region, followed suit, publicly lambasting the "generals and ministers" in Moscow for failing to understand the problems on the front. "Indeed, many say: if they were a defence minister who had allowed such a state of affairs, they could, as officers, have shot themselves," Stremousov, 45, said. "But you know the word 'officer'...

The pencils of Russian commanders 😅 #RussianArmyPhoto 1Photo 2Photo 3You'll figure it out.

KYIV, Ukraine—Outside the Giraffe shopping mall on the western edge of Ukraine’s capital, a group of locals prepared to meet the Russian armored column thundering their way. It was late February, and the Russians, from an elite airborne unit, were riding atop their vehicles, as if expecting a warm greeting. One wore a Cossack woolen hat instead of a helmet. Another hadn’t loaded his rifle. The few dozen Ukrainians from the towns of Irpin and Bucha had other intentions, which they had written on the cement mixer and bulldozer that blocked the road: “Welcome to hell.” After Russia launched an...

A growing list of failings and defeats in Ukraine have spawned angry outbursts from Russia's elite, who still support the "military operation" but have gone as far as to suggest army chiefs should face the firing squad. Before September saw a series of battlefield reversals, public criticism of the army was rare. The offensive had been presented as a sacred, patriotic mission and speaking ill of the armed forces could lead to a long stay in prison. Today, nobody among the elite is calling into question the merits of Moscow's viewpoint or the operation against a neighbouring nation. But the...

Racing down a road with his men in pursuit of retreating Russian soldiers, a battalion commander came across an abandoned Russian armored vehicle, its engine still running. Inside there was a sniper rifle, rocket propelled grenades, helmets and belongings. The men were gone. “They dropped everything: personal care, helmets,” said the commander, who uses the code name Swat. “I think it was a special unit, but they were panicking. It was raining very hard, the road was bad and they drop everything and move.” After months of static fighting and holding the line under withering Russian artillery barrages, Ukrainian soldiers...

A video has emerged on social media showing what appears to be three Russian soldiers surrendering to Ukrainian forces as their armored personnel carrier (APC) flies a makeshift white flag. Vitaly Kim, head of the Nikolayev region’s military administration, shared the video on his official Telegram channel Wednesday, claiming that the Russian soldiers sold the armored vehicle to the Ukrainian military as part of the surrender process.“We bought an BMP-2 (APC),” Kim wrote in the caption, the pro-Ukraine news outlet zn.ua reported. The recording, which was also uploaded to the pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel “Nikolayevskiy Vanyok,” shows the armored vehicle with...

The Ukrainians’ bodies lay side-by-side on the grass, the earth beside them splayed open by a crater. Dragged to the spot by Russian mercenaries, the victims’ arms pointed to where they had died. “Let’s plant a grenade on them,” a voice says in husky Russian, in what appears to be a plan to booby-trap the bodies. “There is no need for a grenade, we will just bash them in,” another says of the Ukrainian soldiers who will come to collect the bodies. The mercenaries then realize they have run out of ammunition. (snip) Wagner’s struggles in Ukraine have set in...

Tyler Rogoway @Aviation_Intel New reality of modern warfare that was anything but unforeseeable: the 'democratization' of long-range precision strikes via cheap, hard-to-spot, hard-to shoot down, and potentially overwhelming 'suicide' drones. And yes, this puts critical fuel and weapons storage areas at risk. Maria Avdeeva@maria_avdv7h Bila Tserkva, 80 km north of Kyiv, was attacked by at least 6 Iranian Shahed-136 drones tonight. This caused a major fire at infrastructure facilities. Reportedly 16 drones were launched from the south of Ukraine in the direction of Odesa, Dnipro and Kyiv overnight. Ukraine Situation Report: Russia's Drone War Erupts Thanks To Iran Russia's Iranian-made...

The presidential press office of Ukraine accused global media outlets of “nuclear hysteria” on Thursday for sharing remarks made by President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked the world for “preemptive strikes” on Russia to avoid nuclear war. Zelensky made the remarks during a question and answer session with the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, on Thursday, asserting that NATO had a responsibility to “make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko told the U.K. Daily Mail in an article published Wednesday that Ukrainian “intelligence services” were killing Ukrainians suspected of collaborating with the Russian military “like pigs” in areas where Kyiv has pushed back the ongoing invasion.The British newspaper highlighted multiple examples of individuals — civilians with backgrounds such as chicken farm security guard and alleged pedophile — currently in Ukrainian custody and facing prosecution for aiding the Russian invasion. Those cases, where some form of legal process appears to be in place, contrast significantly with Gerashchenko’s insistence that Ukrainian law does not protect collaborators...

"The truth is on our side and truth is strength!" Vladimir Putin boomed into a microphone on Red Square last week, after a grand ceremony at which he proclaimed four large chunks of Ukrainian territory to be part of Russia. "Victory will be ours!" But in the real world, things look very different. Even as Russia's president signed his illegal annexation treaties in the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces were advancing inside the areas he had just seized. Hundreds of thousands of men have been fleeing Russia rather than be drafted to fight in an expanding war. And things are going so...

Footage has emerged of a Russian propagandist being brutally arrested for speaking out against high-ranking Russian officials. Affiliates and members of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group have repeatedly criticised the Russian Armed Forces and its leaders on Telegram. Alexey Slobodenyuk, the head of media for a Russian mercenary group fighting in Ukraine, was pulled from his car by a special branch of the National Guard of Russia known for their unwavering loyalty to Vladimir Putin. Slobodenyuk has been accused of attacking defence minister Sergei Shoigu online, claiming that Russia’s current failings in Ukraine were in part due to organisational failures....

Scott Ritter talks about the referendum in Ukraine to become part of Russia 28 min. interview

Fresh off the successful color revolution coup by the globalists in Ukraine, American neocons saw their opportunity to push for a proxy war with Russia. Two of the most infamous and disgraced lawmakers in U.S. history – Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and now-deceased John McCain (R-AZ) – spread propaganda for the coming conflict while visiting a group of Ukrainian troops. “Your fight is our fight. 2017 will be the year of offense. All of us will go back to Washington, and we will push the case against Russia. Enough of Russian aggression. It is time for them to pay a...

Just 14% of the public say they have a favourable impression of Truss in a YouGov survey conducted between 1-2 October, compared to more than a quarter (26%) who said so in the previous survey on 21-22 September.Nearly three quarters (73%) now see the prime minister in an unfavourable light, including more than half (55%) who see her very unfavourably.Truss’s net favourability score has fallen by 28 points to -59 in less than a fortnight – in comparison, Boris Johnson’s net favourability was -53 when it dropped to its lowest in early July, while Jeremy Corbyn’s lowest ever score was...

As part of long-standing, ongoing efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is purchasing a supply of the drug Nplate from Amgen USA Inc; Nplate is approved to treat blood cell injuries that accompany acute radiation syndrome in adult and pediatric patients (ARS). Amgen, based in Thousands Oaks, California, developed Nplate for ARS with support from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), as well as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,...

Don't the Czechs want an aircraft carrier? Politicians and embassies also picked up on the joke about the annexation of Královec The joke about joining Kaliningrad, or Královec, to the Czech Republic continues to be picked up by top politicians and embassies. The American Embassy in Prague offers the Czech Republic an aircraft carrier, Deputy Minister of Finance Jiří Valenta jokingly plans that it will be necessary to increase the GDP of the annexed region after taking over Královec. Senator Miroslava Němcová proposes a letter in which the Czechia would inform the Russians about the accession of Kaliningrad to the...

Examines U.S. relations with the member nations of NATO, explains U.S. opposition to the Siberian pipeline project, and assesses European willingness to ignore U.S. objections.

At this point, the United States has sent more than $17 billion in cash and military aid to Ukraine for that nation’s fight against the Russians. The United States has been far and away the largest, most generous patron of Ukraine’s government of any of the allies who are supporting this effort. But this has dragged on for quite a while now and it is long past time to begin seriously discussing the obvious question. How long are we supposed to keep this up? In fairly short order, the money we’ve sent to Ukraine will more than double the annual...