Free Republic

China’s satellite coverage in the Western Pacific has doubled since 2018, the Pentagon reported last week in its annual assessment of the Chinese military. That gives China the ability to detect American surface ships with an array of sensors that can guide its 2,000 land-based missiles to moving targets, including US aircraft carriers. The Defense Department’s November 29 report “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China” reflects a grimly realistic rethinking of China’s military capacity in its home theater. China hawk Elbridge Colby, a prominent advocate of a Western Pacific military buildup to deny China access to...

Ukraine being flattened by weapons that have no western equivalents.

The Biden administration is privately encouraging Ukraine's leaders to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia and drop their public refusal to engage in peace talks unless President Vladimir Putin is removed from power, according to people familiar with the discussions.The request by American officials is not aimed at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table, these people said. Rather, they called it a calculated attempt to ensure the government in Kiev maintains the support of other nations facing constituencies wary of fueling a war for many years to come.

Russia plans to supervise operations of the Zaporizh .. (Cannot extract more from the article easily)

In a Sunday editorial in the state-owned Global Times, Beijing warned that allowing the country into the alliance—as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested—would lead to an inevitable escalation in the conflict, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats to use nuclear arms against the West. While unlikely—U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan stated in a White House press briefing last week that NATO should delay talks on allowing the country into the alliance—the newspaper warned "all European countries will tremble under the shadow of a possible nuclear war" should it take place, and called for the Western alliance to withdraw...

Gala concert devoted to the 1160th anniversary of Russian statehood Vladimir Putin made a speech at a gala concert marking the 1160th anniversary of Russian statehood. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, Today, we are marking the 1160th anniversary of Russian statehood. I would like to congratulate you on this momentous historical date that is of key importance for Russia. Veliky Novgorod, Rurikovo Settlement, Staraya (Old) Ladoga and Izborsk are the cradle of Rus, the source of our civilisation and our state, our culture and education. It is from here, from the north, that the guards of the first Russian...

Vladimir Putin appeared poised to go all-in on his war in Ukraine today, sparking fears of an escalation in fighting that could drag in NATO and spark World War Three. In a day of rapid-fire developments, Kremlin stooges in Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions simultaneously announced referendums on becoming part of Russia between September 23 and 27, with the sham votes expected to easily pass. Dmitry Medvedev, a staunch Putin ally, then vowed 'all forces of self-defence' will be used to protect what he called 'Russian territory' - teeing up a new phase in the conflict involving weapons...

(machine translation, emphasis added) The Russian Defense Ministry said that the APU lost more than 1,200 people in an attempt to attack The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), while trying to conduct an offensive in Mykolaiv-Krivoy Rog and other directions, suffered heavy losses, more than 1,200 soldiers were destroyed. This was reported to journalists by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. According to the ministry, Russian troops destroyed 48 tanks, 46 infantry fighting vehicles, 37 other armored combat vehicles, 8 pickups with heavy machine guns. In addition, while repelling the enemy’s offensive, the Russian military defeated the units of the...

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 92, Russian news agencies cited hospital officials as saying on Tuesday.

Russian Version of a Turkey ShootSaker version of the story "The Defense Ministry called the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the failed offensive of Ukraine near Kherson Ukrainian troops attempted an offensive in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, as a result, the AFU units suffered heavy losses, the Russian Defense Ministry told reporters. “Today, during the day, on the direct instructions of Zelensky, Ukrainian troops attempted an offensive in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions in three directions. As a result of the active defense of the grouping of Russian troops, the AFU units suffered heavy losses,” TASS reports....

Intelslava reports on the attempted ukie offensive near Kherson... 🇷🇺🇺🇦 "The AFU attempted a limited "counterattack" today on the Kherson front. The troops and equipment involved were immediately savaged by Russian artillery and airstrikes. The AFU has no meaningful offensive capacity. Leaving their defensive positions only hastens their destruction. 39.6Kviews 11:44 Intel Slava Z 🇷🇺🇺🇦 The counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the south, the area - north of Posad-Pokrovsky: ▪️Two Su-25 attack aircraft of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine were shot down ▪️7-8 infantry fighting vehicles, 4-5 tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed...

Total collapse of US/EU/NATO policy both military and economic, damage to European society may be irreparable

The war currently underway in Ukraine, which pits Ukraine as a proxy for the collective West against Russia, is primarily an ideological or religious one, with Russia representing what is left of Christian Europe, and “the West” representing a totalitarian ideology that abhors religion in general and Christianity in particular. This statement may sound strange, given the fact that some Westerners – though fewer every day – still see “the West,” (basically Europe and North America) as Christian, and Russia as Communist, or crypto-Communist.

Mercouris explains the reason for the slow and deliberae pace of the Russian rescue operationAside from everything else, this conflict is going to kill the basic business model for the US MIC. Nobody is going to want to buy US weapons after this.

Army members have been told that they "must be prepared" for the possibility of being deployed to Ukraine to fight in the war against Russia. Warrant Officer Paul Carney issued the warning six months on from Vladimir Putin's invasion of the country in February, saying that British troops “must be prepared for new realities” as the UK military was now “shaping itself to meet the threat from Russia”. WO1 Carney, the Army’s highest-ranking Warrant Officer, instructed soldiers to check that they were physically fit enough for operations, as well as taking the time to have conversations with family members, The...

"As a result of urgent detective measures, the federal security service has solved the murder of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, born in 1992," Tass reported quoting an FSB statement.The assassin, Natalia Vovk was identified as a citizen of Ukraine, who was born in 1979, the report further added. On July 23, 2022, Vovk and her daughter Sofya Shaban, who was born in 2010, arrived in Russia, the agency reported.The FSB claimed in its report that Vovk and Shaban went to the literary and musical festival Tradition on the day of the murder. Darya was there at the event as an...

The Puppet Masters of UkraineDems, Repubs and NATO(All links open in new tab/window) It seems NGOs and in particular, the president and CEO of one of them are in charge of shaping US policy in Eastern Europe and have been for many years.NED is funded by congress and also helps fund the a couple of other NGOs , one made up of democrats and one made up of republicans both of which are also funded by congress. Can you say incest? I knew you could.The National Endowment for Democracy (NED)https://www.ned.org/about/board-of-directors/The National Endowment for Democracy has supported democracy-building efforts in Ukraine...

While we are being distracted by Ukraine, President Putin has advanced his geopolitical goals materially. Aided and abetted by President Xi, Putin is taking the Asian continent into his control. That mission is well on its way to being achieved. He now awaits the winter months to finally force the EU to reject America’s hegemony. Only then, will the western end of the Eurasian continent be truly free of American interference. This article explains how he is achieving his strategic goals. It examines the geopolitics of the Asian landmass and the nations tied to it, which are commercially and financially...

Detailed commentary with maps from a bird's eye view along with Denys Davydov expertise in all kinds of vehicles and weapons.

1- Explosions occurred in the occupied Crimea, an ammunition depot detonated: a railway was damaged. Video https://player.obozrevatel.com/video/files/videos/0/37/632/480p.mp4 2- https://player.obozrevatel.com/video/files/videos/0/37/621/480p.mp4 3- https://player.obozrevatel.com/video/files/videos/0/37/619/480p.mp4 Explosions in the village of Mayskoye in the occupied Crimea began around 6 a.m. on August 16. The epicenters of events were engulfed in fires, the Russian military fled from there in tanks. This was told by eyewitnesses, local residents who were evacuated to the village of Kondratyevo. In total, 27 people were taken out of dangerous places, including two children, Crimean media reported (to watch the video, scroll to the end of the news). "I live on Rosa...