Free Republic

A dormant North Korean port near the border with Russia has sprung back to life, fueling what experts say is a burgeoning trade in arms destined for the frontlines in Ukraine that is simultaneously bolstering the anemic economy managed by Kim Jong Un. Satellite imagery of the Najin port taken from October to December shows a steady stream of ships at the facility, hundreds of shipping containers being loaded and unloaded, and rail cars ready to transport goods. The activity appears to have picked up since early October, when the U.S. accused North Korea of sending munitions to Russia. The...

Let’s hope that Joe Biden has some sense and that all of this talk about bringing back the draft turns out to be nothing at all. Because bringing back the draft would tear our nation apart. Most young Americans definitely do not want to go to war, and I believe that resistance to a draft would far exceed anything that we witnessed during the 1960s and 1970s. But our politicians have been talking about implementing a draft anyway, because we could soon find ourselves fighting multiple wars simultaneously. A few days ago, I was stunned when I learned that hundreds...

Here, Vanguard, et al are doing for real what Stalin and the USSR were accused of doing. Except it is all of Ukraine that is being “liquidated” – physically, and before the eyes of the world. When people talk about “Ukrainian grain” they’re actually talking about grain that is now owned by US and EU mega-corporations such as Vanguard Group, Kopernik Global Investors, BNP Asset Management Holding, Goldman Sachs-owned NN Investment Partners Holdings, and Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. Several large US pension funds, foundations, and university endowments are also invested in Ukrainian land through...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a draft law that would end the requirement for Russia to notify the Council of Europe when it declares or lifts martial law. Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there has been speculation about whether Putin would put Russia on a full war footing, including a declaration of martial law and full mobilization. Russia had to notify the Secretary General of Europe's 46-member human rights organization, as well as the United Nations, if it intended to declare a state of emergency, which would restrict the rights of its citizens.

An official in Ukraine reported on Thursday night that two Russian officers were killed and 15 other servicemen were hospitalized after a "mass poisoning attack" that occurred during a festive event in the city of Mariupol. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol in Ukraine, reported the incident on the Telegram app and wrote that "the poisoning was carried out by Ukrainian partisans while Kremlin forces celebrated Navy Day last Sunday." According to him, "During the celebration, the officers were poisoned in one of the military facilities." The Kremlin believes that the poisoning was caused by cyanide pills...

A national defense analyst says NATO and the West need to pay attention to Russia’s repeated warnings about using nuclear weapons, this time from a notable academic who concludes Russia must consider nukes to stop NATO expansion and to “save humanity” from the West. “Russia and its leadership seem to be facing a difficult choice,” begins the academic paper by Sergei Karaganov. “It becomes increasingly clear that a clash with the West cannot end even if we win a partial or even a crushing victory in Ukraine.” That frightening document, which published in late June, goes on for another 2,900...

We all saw this unfold last week. Many, including myself, were watching in shock and disbelief as this mercenary army called the Wagner Group was marching toward Moscow, coming within 120 miles of the capital. All kinds of military experts, as well as experts on Russia and geopolitics, were trying to dissect what was happening. Then as suddenly as it all began, it all inexplicably dissipated. We were all left wondering… what in the world was going on here? This Wagner group is led by a man named Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been leading this mercenary army for several years....

What is it going to take to wake people up? Russia is deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, and there is lots of talk in the Russian media about using such weapons to bring a quick end to the war in Ukraine. The theory is that once the Russians show that they are willing to use tactical nukes, the U.S. and the other western powers will back off. But that won’t be what happens. Instead of backing off, the Biden administration will respond by using U.S. tactical nuclear weapons against Russian targets in Ukraine. And once both sides have used...

Last Saturday the Washington Post published an exposé of classified American intelligence documents showing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, working behind the back of the Biden White House, pushed hard earlier this year for an expanded series of missile attacks inside Russia. The documents were part of a large cache of classified materials posted online by an Air Force enlisted man now in custody. A senior official of the Biden administration, asked by the Post for comment on the newly revealed intelligence, said that Zelensky has never violated his pledge never to use American weapons to strike inside Russia. In...

At least one Russian warplane and a military helicopter have crashed in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, Russian emergency services were quoted by TASS news agency as saying, with several reports claiming the craft had been shot down. Later, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that a Russian SU-35 jet and a second Mi-8 helicopter also crashed on May 13, but that report could not immediately be confirmed. Kommersant said an SU-34, SU-35, and two Mi-8 helicopters were part of an air group and that they had been “shot down almost simultaneously” in the Bryansk region.

We are getting dangerously close to the “hot phase” of World War III, but most people in the western world don’t even realize what is going on. They simply trust our leaders when they tell us that we will never have to be directly involved in a conflict with Russia, but meanwhile those same leaders continue to push us ever closer to such a scenario. Earlier today, we learned that the UK has now delivered long-range “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles to Ukraine… The United Kingdom has delivered multiple “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles to Ukraine, giving the nation a new long-range...

Western news media and governments have given the impression that the current Ukraine war began with Russia’s “Special Military Operation” early last year as a supposed step to rebuilding the Soviet Empire. But then last week, the Conservative Treehouse shockingly reported and showed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg openly admitting that NATO has been at war against Russia since 2014. What? This is a big deal since we have been constantly told that Russia has been the initial aggressor and the only ones involved in this war have been innocent, democratic Ukraine vs. authoritarian, conquering Russia. It has been a...

Washington has been cautious about which arms it provides Kyiv and from where the weaponry arrives. But speaking in Israel today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli counterparties they ought to be doing a lot more. Alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, Blinken stated as a matter of fact that “Russia’s ongoing atrocities” underscore the importance of “providing support for all of Ukraine’s needs—humanitarian, economic and security.” He implied that this support was an international responsibility. On Tuesday, he appeared to place that burden squarely on Israeli shoulders. “Iran’s deepening ties with Moscow and the sophisticated weaponry...

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, of building "camps" for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Morawiecki posted on Facebook, "On the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, let us remember that to the east Putin is building new camps." Morawiecki, who has advocated for Ukraine since the start of the invasion, did not elaborate on his claim any further. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made similar past accusations against Russia. In October, Zelensky described Olenivka as a “concentration camp” where Ukrainians prisoners are kept.

Russia is sending drug addicts to war in an effort to meet its mobilization quota, according to a report by the Ukrainian Center of National Resistance. “The information about the massive mobilization of drug addicts was confirmed by one of the Russian soldiers who surrendered to the Resistance Movement,” the Center reported. “According to him, he was not cured of addiction and continued to use drugs while fighting in Zaporizhzhia. The man took the drugs with him as medicine.” A similar report was made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “Among the already recruited personnel, there...

In a potentially escalatory move, French President Emmanuel Macron became the first Western leader to supply Ukraine with tanks following talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, the West is conducting regime change in Russia by engaging in a proxy war through Ukraine and the oh-so-willing Volodymyr Zelensky. Could this have anything to do with the 2014 Ukrainian insurrection funded and conducted by the Obama Biden regime in the United States? Now the erstwhile leader of all Europe, Emmanuel Macron, has become the first furnish tanks to Ukraine, immediately followed by Germany and...

A top Ukrainian presidential aide called for the “liquidation” of Iranian factories making drones and missiles, as well as the arrest of their suppliers, as Kyiv accused Tehran of planning to supply more weapons to Russia. Writing on Twitter on Saturday, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Iran “blatantly humiliates the institution of international sanctions”, before calling for the destruction of Iranian weapon factories in response.

Russia’s only aircraft carrier caught fire on Thursday, only a matter of months before it was meant to return to sea after lengthy repairs.The Admiral Kuznetsov was close to being released back to the Russian navy after years of repairs when it caught fire, Alexei Rakhmanov, head of the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.“There has been a little problem during repairs,” Mr Rakhmanov said. “The blaze has been put out. All fire alarms worked normally. There are no casualties or damage.”About 20 people were evacuated from the ship that caught fire at the drydock...

Right-wing critics have berated Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky for wearing combat gear during a historic visit to the White House and Congress, where he made an impassioned plea for more funding to aid Kyiv’s defense effort. What does a nation in decline look like? Well, it looks a lot like America on Day 1,011 of 15 Days To Flatten The Curve, actually. In America, our borders are wide open with over one million illegals streaming through every year. What’s being done about it? Nothing. America has a rapidly-escalating homeless problem with tent cities and street camps in every major city...

Russia's Wagner Group mercenaries have sent a "bloodied" sledgehammer in a violin case to the European Parliament after members started proceedings to label them as terrorists. Sledgehammers have become an unofficial symbol of the Kremlin-linked group because its fighters have used them to kill during overseas missions. In a video posted on one of its Telegram channels, a suited lawyer working for Wagner Group carries a violin case into a bare room and places it on a table. He lifts the lid of the violin case, showing off a highly polished sledgehammer. The head has been engraved with Wagner's logo...