Free Republic

Russia's central bank hiked its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 18% on Friday as it grapples with high inflation and an overheated economy, bringing the cost of borrowing to its highest in more than two years. -snip- The key rate is now at its highest since April 2022. The Bank of Russia raised rates to 20% in an emergency move soon after the Kremlin sent Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022. "Inflation has accelerated and is developing significantly above the Bank of Russia’s April forecast. Growth in domestic demand is still outstripping the capabilities to expand...

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that Dmitry Bulgakov, a former deputy defense minister, had been arrested and charged with corruption, the Interfax news agency reported. -snip- He served as deputy defense minister until he was replaced in 2022 and is the recipient of several top military and civilian awards, including the Hero of Russia award, the country’s highest honour. -snip- Bulgakov, who was in charge of military logistics until he was dismissed in September 2022, is the latest in a string of high-profile defense ministry figures to have been charged with corruption.

A Russian military airfield in occupied Crimea was reportedly targeted by a missile strike that caused explosions and a fire early on July 26, Ukrainian media and Russian Telegram channels reported, while Ukrainian energy facilities were again struck by Russian shelling and drones. The Ukrainian TV channel Suspilne, citing local residents, reported explosions in the cities of Saky and Yevpatoria in Crimea. "Very powerful explosions" were reported by residents in Saky, which is home to a Russian airfield. The Crimean Wind channel on Telegram reported that an ammunition depot at the airfield was struck and quoted a source as saying...

This is the moment Vladimir Putin's forces were left humiliated when one of his biggest recent assaults of his war on Ukraine ended in substantial losses. The Russian leader had ordered his troops to capture more territory in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, but the push near Kurakhove resulted in mass death and destruction. The failed assault led to the reported deaths of 40 invaders, and left 37 more injured. Russia is carrying out intense attacks in multiple sections of the eastern front, but in a Ukraine victory, troops managed to fend off 29 attacks in Kurakhove alone, the General...

Ukrainian forces downed a Russian Su-25 ground attack aircraft on Friday, according to the country's Khortytsia group of forces operating in the eastern Donetsk region. The aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft guns from the 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade as it attacked Ukrainian frontline positions near the town of Pokrovsk, the forces' statement posted on Telegram said. The Soviet-designed Sukhoi armored aircraft has been used extensively by both sides since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Russia has refuted social media rumors of a nuclear emergency after speculation spread on Friday that a radiation incident had occurred at the Rostov nuclear power plant. "The Rostov nuclear power plant is operating normally, the background radiation is normal, the messages that have appeared about the emergency are fake," Russian state nuclear company Rosenergoatom told state-run news agency RIA Novosti. Rosenergoatom also responded to the rumors on the social media platform VKontakte, asking internet users to "be vigilant." "The units are operating normally, the radiation background is at the natural level!" it said.

Ukraine's security services launched a raid on a key Russian base which they claimed was destroyed in the fighting. The SBU released a video which it said showed airborne and waterborne drones attacking the target, followed by large explosions. Ukrainian broadcaster Suspline said of the video: "Last night, SBU drones hit the Russian coast guard base on Lake Donuzlav in occupied Crimea, law enforcement sources told Sospilny. "As a result of the combined attack of sea and air drones, the following were damaged and disabled: the headquarters with a control post, a warehouse of ammunition and equipment, an electrical substation,...

A top Russian general has been formally dismissed from his post after being arrested on bribery charges in May, according to Russian state media. Lt Gen Vadim Shamarin was arrested amid a wider crackdown on corruption in the defence ministry and was accused of taking "a particularly large bribe" from a telecommunications company. Prior to his arrest he had served as deputy chief of the army’s general staff overseeing the signals corps and military communications. Prosecutors have accused him of taking bribes between April 2016 and October 2023 to ensure an increase in orders from the company's factory. A military...

The war in Ukraine has long become one of attrition and endurance, where the status of the competing forces is arguably more important than individual pieces of terrain changing hands. In this piece, leveraging the work of various people and sources, we look at what we can determine about the status of Russian equipment stocks and active vehicle fleets in 2024, and try to project potential paths forward and establish a baseline for comparing against Ukrainian forces in a coming episode.

The update by the Ministry of Defence added that the heavy losses would likely continue as Russia looked to make gains across the front lines in Ukraine. “The average daily Russian casualties (killed and wounded) in Ukraine, throughout May and June 2024, increased to conflict highs of 1,262 and 1,163 respectively,” the MoD wrote.

Havrylyuk said that people were seen as expendable by Putin in his mission to conquer Ukraine, but economic issues and problems supplying its troops with ammunition and equipment could soon blunt its campaign. The ISW said that high casualties were part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategy to grind out a victory in Ukraine through a war of attrition. "The recent increase in reports of entire Russian units becoming combat ineffective due to losses highlights the tactics on which Russian forces are relying on to pursue Putin's theory of a slow, gradual, grinding victory in Ukraine," it said. Vladimir Putin...

Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine continues to claim lives, as the Kremlin’s military leadership resorts to increasingly brutal tactics against civilians—including a ghastly attack on a children's hospital in Kyiv and other sites across Ukraine. In their comments on state television, prominent propagandists often reiterate that Moscow’s campaign of senseless brutality is designed to prompt Ukrainians to overthrow their government. Russian talking heads also resort to nuclear threats, which is always a sign that things on the battlefront are not going well. Indeed, Russian propagandists and military experts are tacitly acknowledging sinking morale and widespread lying in their military. Despite...

A TOP Putin crony who was to be a key witness in a major Kremlin corruption scandal has "suddenly" died under mysterious circumstances. Russian general Magomed Khandayev, 61, was head of the State Expertise Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defence. Khandayev was seen as a key witness in a corruption scandal shrouding the Russian defence ministry amid Putin's illegal war against Ukraine. His body was flown to Moscow to his home region of Dagestan for burial, according to reports. The cause of Khandayev’s death has not been specified. -snip- Khandayev worked under deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov, 48, who...

KYIV, July 8 (Reuters) - Russia blasted the main children's hospital in Kyiv with a missile in broad daylight on Monday and rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes for months. Parents holding babies walked in the street outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack. Windows had been smashed and panels ripped off, and hundreds of Kyiv residents were helping to clear debris.

The dramatic pictures showed blood-covered mothers cradling their terrified children as they tried to escape the hospital after the strike. Horrifying pictures have captured the aftermath of a devastating Russian missile strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv that caused widespread damage and killed at least two people. Vladimir Putin's army launched a massive assault on Ukraine, targeting five Ukrainian cities with more than 40 missiles - at least 33 people have been killed and more than 150 injured across the country. The onslaught hit apartment buildings and public infrastructure, including the newly reconstructed ward at Kyiv's Okhmatdyt Hospital. Windows...

Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa said Russian fleet had to relocate due to significant damage to Crimea base. Ukraine has huge success targeting the Black Sea Fleet with sea drones. Ukraine's sea drone and missile attacks have left Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters at Sevastopol effectively useless and forced many of its ships to relocate to other locations Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa told Reuters news agency that "almost all the main combat-ready ships have been moved by the enemy from the main base of the Black Sea Fleet" following significant damage to the Crimean base. "The ships are kept in Novorossiisk, and some...

Kyiv's troops have been referring to the relentless attacks as "meat assaults" as wave after wave of soldiers crash into their defence lines. The Ukrainian military said the strikes can come throughout the day, sometimes nearly a dozen times in 24 hours, in the hope of tiring them out. Lt Col Anton Bayev of the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard admitted responding to repeated assaults can be very difficult for his men to handle, even psychologically. Speaking to the BBC, Lt Col Bayev said: "The Russians use these units in most cases purely to see where our firing equipment...

Vladimir Putin is ready to share sovereignty of Crimea with Ukraine, according to an astonishing 'new peace plan'. The dictator sent his trusted interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev to the US with new proposals to end the war that the dictator started, say sources in both Moscow and Kyiv. Despite being sanctioned, Kolokoltsev was allowed into the US ostensibly to attend a UN meeting of police chiefs. But this was a ruse allowing him to travel to Washington on a VIP plane from Putin's presidential fleet to transmit to the US government the dictator's real demands for a peace deal, it...

Russia dropped dozens of its glide bombs on its own territory between April 2023 to April 2024, an intercepted internal document found. At least 38 of the munitions fell on the Belgorod region close to Ukraine, according to The Washington Post, which cited bomb cleanup and evacuation documents obtained by Ukrainian intelligence. The majority of bombs, largely undetonated, were found by civilians in areas surrounding the city. Four bombs have hit the city of Belgorod itself. The first recorded accidental bomb drop fell on a central street in Belgorod in April 2023, creating a 65ft crater, shattering windows and blowing...

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it lost access to many world markets, including much of Europe. Countries like Germany, which for years had relied on Russian gas and oil, now turned sharply away and sought to rid themselves of any vestiges of Russian dependence. (Source) Into the breach stepped China. Always thirsty for new supplies of gas and oil, China quickly notified Russia that it was interested in receiving Russian gas and in developing a pipeline from Siberia for that gas. (Source). Recently, however, that lifeline looks more like a noose, at least for Russia. Beijing is taking...