Free Republic

The White House revealed on Friday the team that will accompany US President Donald Trump to the Alaska summit on Friday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Luntick, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe are among the top US officials who will join Trump for his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his delegation. Additionally, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, among others, are expected to travel with the US president...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to be wearing a sweater with the letters “CCCP” — Russian for USSR — upon his arrival in Alaska. Lavrov will be part of the Kremlin’s delegation when Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump meet later on Friday in a hotly anticipated summit to discuss the war in Ukraine. Lavrov’s white sweatshirt was carefully hidden under a black gilet with only the middle letters “CC” clearly showing in a video posted on X. The current Russian regime has repeatedly exploited USSR nostalgia to pursue its political and imperial goals, according to...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as he arrived in Alaska on Friday, said Moscow has “a clear, understandable position” and arguments to support it at the forthcoming meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. -snip- Lavrov arrived in the US state for a meeting with an American delegation wearing a sweatshirt with "USSR" written on it.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived at a hotel in Anchorage, Alaska wearing a sweater, supposedly with the words "СССР"—the Russian version of “USSR”—on it. The respective footage was posted on the Telegram account Izvestia. The video shows the Russian FM getting out of a car. He is wearing a white sweater and a jacket, on the chest of which the word "СССР" appears to be written. Reporters asked Lavrov if he had been to Alaska before, and the minister responded in the affirmative. Earlier, the Russian FM had called for not making any predictions about the Alaska summit between...

VOLODYMYR Zelensky has said he is "counting on America" as Donald Trump prepares to greet Vladimir Putin on the runway after he lands in Alaska. The embattled Ukrainian president said he hopes the peace summit between the two leaders leads to a trilateral meeting to get Ukraine involved in the peacemaking process. It comes after Trump blasted Vladimir Putin for continuing to attack Ukraine and said his urge to kill "might be in his genes". -snip- Trump says tyrant Putin’s need to kill ‘might be in his genes’ but onslaught ‘hurts his He said: "In [Putin's] mind, it helps him...

Aug 14, 2025

As we await US-Russia Alaska summit tomorrow (15), the MSM continues their painful process of recognizing the realities on the ground in the battlefields of Ukraine.One of the most difficult realities to face is the realization that literally millions of Ukrainian citizens will not fight for their country and hide from the conscription officers.More than half a million Ukrainian men of military age have fled the country, while many others are still in hiding.Add to that the desertion epidemic plaguing the Ukrainian forces, with hundreds of deserters abandoning their positions at the front every single day.Russian forces have breached Ukrainian...

Face-to-face talks between President Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday will give the Russian president a chance to pitch his conditions for peace, chief among them for Ukraine to hand over swaths of its territory. Putin has long coveted the south and east of Ukraine, which his army has failed to fully occupy. Trump has said he would seek to negotiate a swap that would return some of the territory Russia occupies back to Ukraine, without offering further detail. The Kremlin has declared five occupied regions to be part of Russia—Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea. Of those, Russia fully...

This is an interesting video that touches on the talks between Trump and Putin, and the situation in Ukraine. It includes an interview with a Russian writer/journalist -- who I don't know -- and his interesting take on the war. I found it to be a very level-headed interview and discussion, and one that also touches on the history of war in Ukraine.

Once a vague proposal for a territorial swap gained clarity, a worried President Volodymyr Zelensky worked to rally allies before Friday’s Trump-Putin summit.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was returning from the front line last week when he joined a pivotal call with President Trump.Hours earlier, Mr. Zelensky had visited soldiers defending Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region against Russian ground assaults. Now, stopping in the small city of Romny, he listened on a secure line with other European leaders as Mr. Trump outlined Russia’s proposal to end the war.Moscow, Mr. Trump told them, was ready to halt hostilities under a deal involving...

United States President Donald Trump commented on Thursday that he is unsure whether he will hold a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Speaking on Fox News radio, Trump explained that everything depends on how their meeting goes. The US head of state detailed that if discussions go well, the two will appear together and address the press. On the other hand, should talks not go well, the joint press conference will not happen. Trump further added that if negotiations go badly, he would hold a solo press briefing and head right back to...

After three years of war, with the commentariat on both sides eagerly predicting the looming collapse of the enemy, it behooves one to develop a prudent aversion to histrionic predictions. However, it seems fairly obvious that the war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture, and August 2025 will receive considerable play in retrospective accounts of the conflict, as perhaps the last opportunity for Ukraine to cut a deal and slither out of its strategic grave. On Friday, August 15, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are slated to meet in Alaska to discuss steps to end the war. Whether those...

According to The Telegraph on August 13, US President Donald Trump is preparing to offer Russian leader Vladimir Putin a series of economic incentives to end the ongoing war in Ukraine. These proposals will be presented during their highly anticipated meeting on Friday, which will take place in Trump’s offer to Putin includes access to Alaska’s rich natural resources, lifting some sanctions on Russia’s aviation industry, and providing access to the rare earth minerals in Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russian forces. The Telegraph reports that Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, is briefing Trump on these economic trade-offs as...

“Russia is planning a new missile surprise for the world as it prepares to test its 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile. The development comes ahead of a crucial face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, to discuss the Ukraine war. Moscow is likely to test its nuclear-tipped 9M730 Burevestnik intercontinental cruise missile in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the coming days, according to the Barents Observer. Using a nuclear…… …. This gives it an unlimited range that can hit any point on the planet. The range of this missile is unlimited because it has...

President Trump’s upcoming summit in Alaska with President Putin will be a defining moment not just in U.S. relations with the Russian Federation, but also for the safety and survival of the world. I do not believe that most Americans fully understand the gravity of the situation. My personal assessment is that if these two leaders cannot reach an agreement this weekend, then the chances increase dramatically that events could spiral out of control, leading to an unthinkable catastrophe. Zelensky appears to be trying to box in President Trump by his trip to Germany to continue funds flow to him...

President Donald Trump told European leaders during a call on Wednesday that he does not intend to discuss any possible divisions of territory when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this week, according to two European officials and three other people briefed on the call. Trump said on the call, which also included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that he is going into the meeting with Putin with the goal of securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, those sources said. Trump and European leaders agreed that a ceasefire in Ukraine has to be implemented before peace negotiations can begin,...

Speculation has swirled over whether the Trump-Putin summit will result in the map of Ukraine being forcibly – and fundamentally – altered. Russia has laid claim to vast parts of Ukraine since 2014, when President Vladimir Putin made his first move. At the time, in the space of a short few months, Moscow carried out the relatively bloodless occupation and annexation of the Crimean peninsula. But that was followed by a Russian-backed separatist movement in the eastern Donbas region – specifically the two regions, or "oblasts", known as Donetsk and Luhansk. A war simmered there for eight years. Ukraine lost...

And it’s not where Putin wants to be.Putin has decided to talk peace with Trump while he dominates the battlefield in eastern Ukraine. His troops are closing in on Donetsk’s main urban centers, whose capture would give him total control of Donbas, where he already fully occupies the province of Luhansk. But it could be looking to get the best deal possible while he is ahead.The prolonged sieges and intense urban warfare that capturing Donetsk’s cities of Kramatorsk, Kostyantynivka, and Sloviansk with a combined population of one quarter million and fortified by Ukrainian military engineers during months, risks dangerously...

Anna Conkling was recently in the town of Dobropillia in Eastern Ukraine, where the Russian military is making one of its most aggressive offensives in recent months.A significant military advance by Russia in Ukraine is forcing thousands of civilians to evacuate from towns near the frontlines. Recent reports indicate that Russian forces have surged as much as 10 miles past Ukrainian defenses in what officials characterize as one of the most aggressive offensives in recent months. This offensive appears to be strategically aimed at encircling critical cities that play a vital role in Ukrainian logistics and defense. Independent reporter Anna...

President Trump agreed with European leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to red lines for the coming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and said he hoped to follow up quickly with a trilateral summit with the two warring leaders. -snip- “President Trump was very clear that the American desire was to obtain a cease-fire at this meeting in Alaska,” Macron told reporters after the meeting. -snip- While Trump’s decision last week to meet Putin on American soil worried Europeans, trans-Atlantic relations have since warmed. In a flurry of calls and meetings, senior U.S. officials—including Trump, Vance and...