Free Republic

In the first livestreamed vote since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, 331 lawmakers approved the bill in two back-to-back readings, with none voting against it. The law reverses legislation passed last week that effectively destroyed the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor (SAPO), two agencies founded as part of the post-EuroMaidan anti-graft reforms... ...The initial controversial bill, quickly pushed through by Zelensky's lawmakers and signed by the president on July 22, sparked mass demonstrations across the country and backlash from Ukraine's international partners... ...Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), a watchdog, supported Zelensky's initiative,...

The Kremlin said on July 29 it had “taken note” of a statement by US President Donald Trump that he was shortening his deadline for Moscow to sign up to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face sanctions. Mr Trump set a new deadline on July 28 of 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress towards ending the war in Ukraine or face consequences, underscoring frustration with President Vladimir Putin over the 3½-year-old conflict. Asked about Mr Trump’s statement on July 29 during a conference call with reporters, the Kremlin kept its remarks short. “We have taken note of...

For the first time in its history, Russia is fighting alone against the entire West, so we cannot afford weakness. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov․ "We have a lot to do. The most important of them is to defeat the enemy. For the first time in its history, Russia is fighting alone against the entire West. In the First and Second World Wars, we had allies. Now we have no allies on the battlefield. Therefore, we must rely on ourselves," Lavrov said.

A pro-Ukraine hacker group claims to have carried out a major cyberattack on Russia’s biggest airline, Aeroflot. Silent Crow has claimed responsibility for the attack on Aeroflot’s IT infrastructure, which caused the airline to cancel dozens of flights on Monday. -snip- Aeroflot, Russia’s national carrier, said it had cancelled more than 40 flights following the IT “failure”, without saying how long it would take to be resolved. This included journeys to airports across Russia, plus the capital of Belarus, Minsk, and the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, the Reuters news agency reported. Aeroflot has not responded to the hacking claims and...

President Donald Trump on Monday reduced to less than two weeks his deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to either reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face massive "secondary tariffs" on Moscow's trade partners. Trump previously gave Putin a 50-day deadline, which was set to expire in early September. But he signaled Monday that things were taking too long, saying "I'm going to make a new deadline of about ...10 or 12 days from today." "I'm disappointed in President Putin," Trump said in Scotland alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "Russia and Ukraine — I would have said five...

Ukrainian drones targeted St. Petersburg on Sunday, Russian authorities said, forcing the airport to close for five hours as Vladimir Putin marked Russia's Navy Day in the city, despite the earlier cancellation of its naval parade due to security concerns. St. Petersburg usually holds a large-scale, televised navy parade on Navy Day, which features a flotilla of warships and military vessels sailing down the Neva River and is attended by Putin. Last year, Russia suspected a Ukrainian plan to attack the city's parade, according to state television. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Sunday that this year's parade had been...

US President Donald Trump is still interested in resolving the conflict in Ukraine and wants to see concrete actions to end it, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with the Fox News channel, APA reports. “This is not his war, but he wants it to end“, the head of the foreign policy department said. According to Rubio, Trump is frustrated that “his good interaction and phone calls with Vladimir Putin are not leading to anything“. “It is time to take action and the president has made it very clear. "He's losing patience," the secretary of state...

US President Donald Trump has allowed the possibility of a trilateral meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well as Volodymyr Zelenskyy, APA reports citing TASS. "It's going to happen. But it should have happened three months ago," he told reporters.