Free Republic

VLADIMIR Putin is clinging to power as rumours swirl that he’s dying from a cocktail of illnesses, with Volodymyr Zelensky saying it's a fact that he will die soon. The Ukrainian President made the blunt prediction during a speech in Paris, standing alongside French leader Emmanuel Macron as he urged the West to “stay strong” and not ease pressure on Russia. Zelensky said: “He [Putin] will die soon, and that’s a fact, and it will come to an end.” The bold claim adds fuel to long-swirling speculation that the 72-year-old tyrant's grip on power may be slipping – not just...

Fierce fighting has raged in the region over the past week, claiming the lives of hundreds of Russian soldiers. Ukrainian forces wiped put a Russian assault group trying to cross a river in Kursk in a brutal attack. -snip- Putin's army sustained heavy losses after attempting to storm the river Psel on Monday. The attack ended in unmitigated disaster for the Russians, as the unit was wiped out during a ferocious artillery barrage. Images shot by a Ukrainian drone show Russian soldiers crossing the river in rubber dinghies. As they reach the shore, they have no time to dig in...

It’s reckless, if not insane, to deploy an open-top, unarmored all-terrain vehicle—in essence, a heavy-duty golf cart—in combat just a quarter mile from the front line. But two years into Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, Russian commanders are at least reckless if not not insane. Apparently this weekend, a Russian unit—possibly the 488th Motor Rifle Regiment—attacked positions held by the Ukrainian 60th Mechanized Brigade in Yampolivka, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast. A Russian column including what appeared to be MT-LB armored tractors and at least one T-90 tank motored west toward Yampolivka. That itself wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was...