Free Republic

Russia said Sunday it scrambled fighter jets to intercept two U.S. military long-range bomber aircraft that approached the Russian border over the Barents Sea in the Arctic. “The crews of the Russian fighters identified the aerial target as a pair of U.S. Air Force B-52H strategic bombers,” Moscow’s defense ministry wrote on the social media platform Telegram, specifying that the planes scrambled were MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters. “As the Russian fighters approached, the U.S. strategic bombers turned away from the State Border of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said.

At the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, commemorating the alliance’s 75th anniversary, leaders offered Ukraine a fresh round of false hope in its war against Russia — which is worse than doing nothing. Whether by military commitment or intensified support, the pretension that NATO could currently deliver a Ukrainian victory, or secure one later, encourages the country’s leaders to postpone reckoning with their dire circumstances. Moreover, it threatens to further imperil NATO members without a security payoff. After the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in 2023, recognition that its forces cannot regain more of its territory has begun to sink in....

LONDON (AP) – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Britain’s new government to help Ukrainian forces attack deeper inside Russia to stop deadly missile strikes on his country, as he gave a rare address by a foreign leader to a U.K. Cabinet meeting. Zelenskyy said “long-range capability” to destroy sites where Russian weapons are concentrated is key to Ukraine’s defense. “I ask you to show your leadership” in lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons, Zelenskyy told Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Russia has deployed devastating firepower as it pursues a summer offensive in eastern Ukraine, reducing villages to rubble and pushing...

The American diplomat and historian George F. Kennan called the First World War the “seminal catastrophe” of the 20th century, and he wrote two lengthy books on the events that led to the outbreak of that war: The Decline of Bismarck’s European Order and The Fateful Alliance. He also included one of his lectures on the First World War in his book American Diplomacy. Reading these works of history gives one a better sense of the root causes of that war, which included policies, decisions, and events that occurred decades before June-August 1914. When the war began in the Balkans...

Three weeks before Trump and Biden sparred over their respective golf games at last Thursday’s presidential debate, “The Courses at Andrews” Air Force Base hosted a charity golf tournament for wounded Ukrainian veterans of the neo-Nazi Azov movement. Joint Base Andrews, located fifteen miles southeast of the White House in Prince George’s County, Maryland, is home to Air Force One and three 18-hole golf courses long favored by U.S. presidents and members of Congress. Brute fascists are starting a new tradition on the green. Retired four-star general David Petraeus addressed at least a half dozen Azov veterans at the June...

Involuntary Draft for Males and Females Ages 18-26 ational Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2025, authorized a Mandatory Military Selective Service Act for American women. The selective service program is a way to implement a military draft for women in the USA. There have been some lawmakers who oppose this measure. Some key highlights in the NDAA are included at this link. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy25_ndaa_executive_summary.pdf In this confusing world we live in, it does not mean if you are a male and identify yourself as “woman” or use various gender pronoun you are exempt from the draft. There are...

Viktor Orbán, Europe’s most pro-Russian leader, met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Friday on a rare trip to Russia that drew strong condemnation from other European leaders. Orbán’s visit to Moscow came days after he made a similar unannounced trip to Kyiv, as the Hungarian prime minister attempts to position himself as a peace broker between Russia and Ukraine. Shortly after landing in Russia for his first trip to the country since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Orbán published a photo with the caption: “The peace mission continues. Second stop: Moscow.” At the Kremlin, the two leaders...

Kyiv has been told that, before it can join Nato, it must fix its problems with corruption. These are very real: the latest Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Ukraine below Belarus and Kazakhstan. But that is not the true reason why there will be no good news on accession for Zelensky at Nato’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington next week.The simple reality is that very few in Nato wants to let Ukraine in, despite endless platitudes including a declaration by the North Atlantic Council at Vilnius last year that “Ukraine’s future is in Nato”. There has been discussion about taking that...

<p>As long as the West continues to allow the Neocons to control this war, then there will be no stopping World War III. These people have spent their entire lives hating Russians for particularly personal reasons. These Neocons have waged endless wars since Vietnam.</p>

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the U.S. will soon announce an additional $2.3 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, to include anti-tank weapons, interceptors and munitions for Patriot and other air defense systems. Austin’s remarks came as Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with him at the Pentagon. And they mark a strong response to pleas from Kyiv for help in battling Russian forces in the Donetsk region. Austin said the aid will come through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to take the weapons from its stocks and send them more quickly to Ukraine.

When German-born Kim Dotcom talks about "the US", he sounds like me talking about "the Globalists". Speaking on the The Alex Jones Show, Kim says that the US is leading the world into a nuclear war, to avoid facing up to its crimes. He says the an asset-based BRICS currency would be preferred for trade by virtually every country over the US dollar, where you risk being impetuously sanctioned over some BS that isn't even true. Kim says, "My big worry is that, you know, once the realization sinks in that this is not reversible, that Russia and China are...

Kim Dotcom @KimDotcom The US Air Force directed the ATACMS missile strike against Russian civilians today. This is an act of war by the US Govt against Russia. Did Joe Biden seek permission from Congress to start a direct war with Russia?

‘History is watching. The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will not be forgotten,” President Biden said on the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Now is the time to prove that the United States stands up for freedom and bows down to no one.” Strong words. Too bad they are nothing more. Time and again, Biden has bowed down to Vladimir Putin, allowing the tyrant to dictate the terms of this unlawful, immoral invasion. Nowhere is this more true than the disgraceful limitations on Ukraine’s strategy.

Nigel Farage has said the West "provoked" Russia's invasion of Ukraine by expanding the European Union and Nato military alliance eastwards. But he added that the expansion of the EU and Nato gave him a "reason" to tell the Russian people "they're coming for us again". In an interview with the BBC's Nick Robinson, Mr Farage was challenged over his judgement and past statements, including when he named Russian President Vladimir Putin as the world leader he most admired in 2014."I said I disliked him as a person, but admired him as a political operator because he's managed to take...

Russia did not want peace, only the capitulation of Ukraine. Jakub Kumoch, former Secretary of State of President Andrzej Duda, who accompanied the Ukrainian delegation to negotiations with Russia in Belarus and Turkey in the spring of 2022, told the newspaper The Polish Times. The Introduction - That negotiations were a dead end. Moscow did not want a lasting peace - this is how Jakub Kumoch says about the backstage negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in the spring of 2022. Today he is the ambassador of the Republic of Poland to China, in 2022 he is the Secretary of State...

Historic news as 400 Russian soldiers have surrendered in central Vovchansk, the largest mass surrender of the entire war on the Russian side. These Russian forces were encircled at the chemical plant and for only 2 days held out until the surrender from today. Russian forces in the city are now seriously crippled with the loss of half a BTG. Meanwhile Ukrainian drone attacks continue to drive home damage into the Russian federation, as Russia takes high losses with very little gains.

The US has agreed to send a second Patriot system to Ukraine, according to reports. Ukraine has been given a handful of the missile systems from its allies, but says it needs more. Patriots help stop Russian attacks, but Ukraine's allies are reluctant to reduce their own arsenals. A second US Patriot system is headed for Ukraine following appeals for further air defenses, according to reports. The MIM-104 Patriot missile system has been hailed as a major success in Ukraine, shooting down Russian missiles and aircraft as Ukraine fights back against Russia's invasion.

Four Russian warships including a nuclear submarine have reached Cuba, just 200 miles off the coast of Florida, ahead of a planned military exercise in the Atlantic. The fleet — made up of a frigate, a nuclear-powered submarine, an oil tanker and a rescue tug — arrived in Havana Bay on Wednesday, welcomed by a 21-cannon salute from Cuba.

A Ukrainian warplane has for the first time fired a weapon that struck a target inside Russia, a Ukrainian military source has told Sky News. The source said a "Russian command node" was hit on Sunday in the area of Belgorod, western Russia. Belgorod is close to the border with northeastern Ukraine. -snip- Speaking on condition of anonymity, the military source told Sky News: "A Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) mission has struck a Russian command node in Belgorod. "Whilst damage assessment is still occurring, it is confirmed as a direct hit. This is the first UAF air-delivered munition delivered against...

Ukrainian forces have damaged an advanced Russian Su-57 jet hundreds of miles away from the front lines inside Moscow's internationally recognized territory, Kyiv's military spy agency said on Sunday, adding this is the "first such case in history." An Su-57 jet was struck on Saturday at the Akhtubinsk airfield, in the southern Russian republic of Astrakhan, Kyiv's GUR military intelligence agency said in a statement. The site is around 365 miles from the current front lines in eastern Ukraine, according to the GUR. One of Russia's influential military bloggers—often considered sources for information on losses in lieu of official commentary...