Free Republic

A senior North Korean general was wounded in a recent Ukrainian strike in the Kursk area, a Western official said Thursday. It is the first time that Western officials have confirmed that a high-ranking North Korean military officer has become a casualty in the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Vladimir Putin has mysteriously disappeared from public view as his regime issued apocalyptic World War Three nuclear threats over the use of long-range Western missiles by Ukraine against Russian territory. It is unclear if during the past 12 days of high international tension the Kremlin dictator has been holed up in a hi-tech bunker, unwell, underwent another round of plastic surgery, took a secret holiday or simply chose to remain out of sight. Yet Putin, 72, has not been definitively seen since an appearance at the Valdai Forum in Sochi on November 7 when he congratulated a "courageous" Donald Trump...

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...