Free Republic

Former US Military. Born in Donbas.

“ TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (MNA) – The Russian Defense Ministry has released a video showing that Russian and Iranian navies hold maneuvers in the Oman Gulf The Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russia and Iran have held joint naval operations in the Gulf of Oman. Iran’s fleet is joined by the Russian corvette Stoiky, whose crew took part in joint ceremonial events in the port of Bandar Abbas, the report said. The sailors from both sides synchronize their actions to ensure safe navigation. Earlier, media have cited the Russian defense ministry as saying that Iran and Russia will hold joint...

US-mediated peace talks on Ukraine collapsed in less than two hours after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky claimed it was unfair that Donald Trump was placing more pressure on his country than on Russia.The second day of talks concluded on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.The talks wrapped up after just two hours, much shorter than the six hours of meetings on Tuesday, according to the head of Russia's delegation.

The Ukrainian public would not accept Kyiv simply handing over the country’s Donbas region to Russia in a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday — advising US envoys against continually pushing a version of peace the war’s victims would see as an “unsuccessful story.” “Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive … me, they will not forgive [the US],” Zelensky told Axios, speaking as US, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Geneva. “This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land.” The president said it was “not fair” that President Trump...

Ukrainian forces managed to liberate over 200 square kilometers of territory from the Russian troops last week, marking their most successful breakthrough in 2.5 years, AFP reports. According to the outlet, these gains are confirmed by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Between February 11 and 15, Ukrainian troops recaptured 201 square kilometers from Russian forces. AFP reports that Ukrainian soldiers took advantage of disruptions in Russian access to Starlink terminals.

Moscow charges Jacques Tilly with “defaming Russian state organs” and threatens him with up to 10 years in prison, but Düsseldorf’s legendary satirist says he won’t be intimidated and is rolling out a new Putin wagon for Monday’s Rose Monday parade. Russia's prosecution of a German satirist fits a pattern of weaponizing its judiciary against foreign critics of Moscow's war in Ukraine, extending the Kremlin's domestic crackdown on free speech beyond its own borders. The 62-year-old sculptor, who faces Moscow's charges of "defaming Russian state bodies" and up to ten years in prison, sent all three floats through Dusseldorf's streets....

Meanwhile, Moscow is citing fictitious Ukrainian counter-offensives to explain why it doesn’t control territories its forces were claiming they’d seized in Zaporizhia oblast; it looks like Putin’s frontline commanders are afraid to tell the high command they’re failing. Poor Vlad: Having caught on to how Putin’s thugs were using hijacked Starlink terminals to guide their drones in massive long-distance attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid and civilian population, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now blocking of Russian access to Starlink, disabling Moscow’s frontline command-and-control communications for another game-changer. Russia’s damning whine: Blocking it from Starlink is (somehow) a violation of international law....

A poll shows that around 40% of under-40s across Britain would refuse to serve in the armed forces if WW3 broke out. Meanwhile, 30% said they would still refuse to serve even if the nation was facing an imminent invasion. Experts across the world believe we've never been closer to a global conflict since the end of WW2 as tensions mount over Iran, Greenland, Venezuela, Israel and Palestine, and Russia and Ukraine.The UK recently raised the age limit for Army reservists from 55 to 65, a clear signal of its preparation for conflict. However, a 2024 YouGov poll shows that...

Today, I'm going to have a special episode. What this episode is going to be is an extension on the episode we had 4 days ago regarding this offer from Russia to America regarding a massive amount of resources. Of course, resources carry with it a massive amount of money. Today we have a little bit more information on this that may make it unbelievably attractive, almost too good to turn away potentially for Trump that this would be in US dollars as of course what we have seen over the past years is many nations Russia at the helm...

Zelensky: The Ukrainian Army is the strongest army in Europe. And I think it is simply not smart to keep this army outside NATO

The Russian invasion force is in disarray following the deactivation of its Starlink satellite communications. Meanwhile Ukrainians are rushing to get their terminals whitelisted to maintain the service. Both sides have made extensive use of the commercial Starlink service, which provides long-range, jam-resistant communication. Now the service operated by SpaceX is being denied to the Russians, and only terminals officially registered in Ukraine will work. “The Starlink terminals added to the ‘whitelist’ are working. The Russians’ terminals have already been blocked,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a statement on Thursday, The effect on the Russians has been catastrophic,...

The opposition leader, who is leading the polls ahead of April's elections, says Viktor Orbán's party is orchestrating a smear campaign with secretly recorded intimate videos. Hungary's opposition leader Péter Magyar has accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ruling Fidesz party of preparing a blackmail campaign against him involving a secretly recorded sex tape, escalating tensions ahead of April's parliamentary elections. Magyar, whose Tisza party leads Fidesz in opinion polls, said he suspects the governing party plans to release intimate recordings made with surveillance equipment. "I suspect they are planning to release a recording, recorded with secret service equipment and possibly...

Russian soldiers and military bloggers have railed against the Kremlin after it restricted access to the Telegram messaging app. Widespread disruptions to the app were reported on Monday and Tuesday as Roskomnadzor, the Russian state media regulator, said it would levy its strongest restrictions on Telegram’s operations yet. The internet watchdog said the move would safeguard Russian citizens against “criminal and terrorist” content, in Moscow’s latest crackdown on the free internet. Roskomnadzor, which has for years crusaded for a “sovereign internet” liberated from Western influence, has over the past six months imposed new limits on Telegram and WhatsApp at least...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared Ukraine an "enemy" of Hungary during a speech at a rally on Feb. 7, the independent regional outlet Index reported. Orban, widely seen as the Kremlin's closest ally in the European Union, has repeatedly lashed out at Kyiv and Brussels throughout Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. Speaking at a rally in the Hungarian city Szombathely on Feb. 7, Orban criticized Ukraine for demanding that the EU halt imports of cheap Russian energy. "Anyone who says this is an enemy of Hungary, so Ukraine is our enemy," he said. His remarks come shortly after the...

In recent days, the news feed has been flooded with all kinds of headlines like “Starlink was shut down in Iran,” “The regime learned how to jam satellite internet,” “Starlink is broken,” and other similar nonsense. Naturally, many journalists and media outlets were happy to exploit clickbait headlines. As a result, many people perceived this narrative as an actually documented fact. Understandably… when such claims are published by well-known media, they surely cannot be false, right?Is Starlink even available in Iran at all?To begin with, a small historical excursus is needed, one that is absolutely essential for understanding the background...

Iran has supplied millions of rounds of ammunition and shells, according to estimates, which is not the full extent of what Moscow has purchased from Tehran. Tehran has also supplied Shahed-136 kamikaze drones and joint technology that has enabled Russia to produce them domestically under the name Geran-2 as part of a $1.75 billion contract signed in early 2023.... In total, Russia has spent more than the equivalent of $4 billion on Iranian military equipment and weapons since the end of 2021, according to the estimate... Russia is not among Iran’s largest trading partners. China tops the list, with trade...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the US wants the war with Russia to end by June, adding that both sides had been invited to the US for talks next week. "America proposed for the first time that the two negotiating teams – Ukraine and Russia – meet in the United States of America, probably in Miami, in a week. We confirmed our participation," he said. There was no immediate comment from Washington or Moscow, but US President Donald Trump has been pushing for an end for the conflict since he took office again more than a year ago. Meanwhile, Russia...

The ultimate question - maybe even more important than "Who's two points up in Iowa?" - is: Why is this happening to us? On our present course, within the next generation the two most valuable continents on earth plus a third "island-continent" in the South Pacific are about to be surrendered to ...something other. And all without a shot being fired - save (in America) the occasional psychotranny, (in Australia) Isis associates armed to the hilt by His Majesty's Government, and (in Europe) a demographically catastrophic war Lindsey Graham and Victoria Nuland want to fight till the last Ukrainian under...

A new poll shows 76% of Greenlanders say they wouldn’t benefit from becoming part of the U.S., noting their concerns about exchanging the Danish welfare system for American healthcare, elder care and education. Only 3% of Greenlanders had a “very positive” view of U.S. government-provided benefits, while 59% held a mainly or very negative view of it, the poll shows. The U.S. has some of the highest healthcare costs in the world. In a new survey conducted by Verian in Denmark for Berlingske and Sermitsiaq, Greenlanders are asked: "Do you want Greenland to leave Denmark and become part of the...

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned on Tuesday that Moscow would take "military and technical compensatory measures" if the United States deploys elements of its proposed "Golden Dome" missile defense system on the Arctic island. Ryabkov made the remarks during a briefing at the Russian Embassy in China. His remarks came as US President Donald Trump seeks to assert greater control over Greenland, the semi-autonomous Danish territory, and advances plans to deploy the "Golden Dome" missile defense system — a multibillion-dollar project he says will be operational before his term ends in 2029. ...His controversial plan comes as the...