Free Republic

For Americans who follow the Russian-Ukrainian war, the past few months must look very strange. In the first half of summer, the story from Kyiv – and the many western media outlets that repeated it – was that Ukraine was winning. Then, not long after the NATO summit in July, Kyiv announced it lacked the interceptors to prevent a winter disaster. The country needed 300 missiles to survive, we were told. Even if these 300 missiles arrive, they are unlikely to protect a country as large as Ukraine from the sheer volume of Russian ballistic attacks and glide-bomb strikes. Now...

Last week, the price of diesel in the US hit $5.85 a gallon, beating the record of June 2022. This sharp rise in fuel price threatens everything from food prices to bond yields. The margin between crude oil and the price of diesel has soared to $100 a barrel. The amount of waterborne diesel exports has 47 million fewer barrels of diesel. Firstly, shipping through the straits of Hormuz has been severely curtailed since February. That hasn’t only blocked crude exports, it has also blocked refined products too — and the conflict has knocked out refineries directly. Responding to Hormuz...

Vladimir Putin has not changed his war aims a jot since 2022 and remains determined on fighting on. Donald Trump has no new plan for peace other than bringing the Ukraine war to an end on Putin’s terms. And Kyiv is running out of money and men to defend itself, just as surely as it has already run out of Patriot interceptors to defend its skies against the Kremlin’s barrages. Those are the three depressing takeaways from the latest round of shuttle diplomacy in Moscow and Kyiv by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff. On the eve...

Ukrainian and US Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump discussed the production of Patriot air defense systems during their meeting and also revived the negotiation track, according to an informed source. "The meeting was very positive, no less than 8 out of 10. The highest priority was securing licenses for Patriot production; other areas are also being worked on. We managed to revive the negotiation track," the source said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a ceasefire would be the best possible outcome if it helps save Ukrainian lives. He also said US President Donald Trump now understands that Russia, not Ukraine, is the side unwilling to end the war, Zelenskyy said in an interview with American far-right blogger Laura Loomer. Ceasefire is preferable to a prolonged war President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine's top priority is saving lives, which makes a potential ceasefire a better scenario than a multi-year war for the sake of military victory. According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine has not abandoned its goal of winning the war, but...

Writing on Twitter late Tuesday, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that “with his signature, the Evil Empire disintegrated” — a reference to Kravchuk’s pivotal role in disbanding the Soviet Union. “Thank you for the peaceful renewal of our Independence. We’re defending it now with weapons in our hands,” Reznikov wrote.Although Kravchuk was a communist leader who spent a lifetime fulfilling decrees written in Moscow, during the waning years of the Soviet Union his strongly nationalist line brought him head-to-head with Russia in a struggle over the Black Sea Fleet and Crimea, The Washington Post reported ahead of his first...

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has announced plans to strip Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honour, after the Ukrainian president named a military unit after a group that led massacres of ethnic Poles during World War Two. However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government regularly clashes with the opposition-aligned president, has sought to calm emotions, warning that the only one to benefit from conflict between Poland and Ukraine is Russia. Zaproponowałem, aby jednym z punktów było odebranie prezydentowi Zełenskiemu Orderu Orła Białego – Prezydent RP @NawrockiKn. pic.twitter.com/4NaOAIjO3C — Kancelaria Prezydenta RP (@prezydentpl) May 29,...

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned a US decision to extend the period during which Russia is allowed to sell oil despite Western sanctions. The move means countries can purchase Russian oil and petroleum products already loaded on vessels at sea until 16 May. The US argues that the waiver is meant to ease the energy supply crunch sparked by the US-Israel war with Iran. But in his remarks on Sunday, Zelensky said "every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war" in Ukraine. Widespread sanctions have been in place against Russia since President Vladimir Putin launched his...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire in Ukraine over the Orthodox Easter weekend, following an earlier call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a pause in some of the hostilities to observe the holiday. Putin's decree, released by the Kremlin, orders Russian forces to observe a ceasefire starting at 4 p.m. Saturday and lasting until the end of Sunday. Zelenskyy proposed earlier in the week that each side stop targeting each other's energy infrastructure over the holiday, saying he made the offer through the United States, which has been mediating talks between delegations from Moscow and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer to meet and find common ground, after the US president's repeated criticism of the UK prime minister. In an exclusive interview with the BBC after talks with Sir Keir, the Ukrainian president said that while he would not tell Trump what to do, the pair should meet to "re-load the relationship". A war ignited by US and Israeli strikes on Iran has spilled into a diplomatic row after Trump's reprimanding of the Nato allies and Starmer's supposed lack of military action. Zelensky warned against division among western leaders...

Let’s say Russia takes over Ukraine (one of the most corrupt countries in the world)… then what? As long as Russia doesn’t go on an ethnic cleansing rampage (doubtful given their common ethnic origins), and honors the mineral agreement with the USA, why should we care?

President Volodymyr Zelensky is worried America and the European Union will forget about Ukraine as focus turns to the Middle East, and that the deliveries of advanced Western missiles will dry up as they’re needed to fight Iran, he told an Italian newspaper.The United States and allies attacking Iran “is right”, President Zelensky said, and brings certain benefits to Ukraine, but the brewing up of a war in the Middle East risks Ukraine’s defence because there is a limited supply of air defence missiles in the world, he has said. Speaking to Milan-published Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera as...

US-mediated peace talks on Ukraine collapsed in less than two hours after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky claimed it was unfair that Donald Trump was placing more pressure on his country than on Russia.The second day of talks concluded on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.The talks wrapped up after just two hours, much shorter than the six hours of meetings on Tuesday, according to the head of Russia's delegation.

The Ukrainian public would not accept Kyiv simply handing over the country’s Donbas region to Russia in a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday — advising US envoys against continually pushing a version of peace the war’s victims would see as an “unsuccessful story.” “Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive … me, they will not forgive [the US],” Zelensky told Axios, speaking as US, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Geneva. “This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land.” The president said it was “not fair” that President Trump...

Russian forces appear close to being pushed out of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupyansk, with only a small number of isolated troops remaining and even pro-Kremlin voices acknowledging the setback, according to a report.

‘Ze’ has gone overboard with his latest remarks.For four years, Volodymyr Zelensky has been painted by the MSM as a heroic ‘defender of democracy’, a ‘present-day Winton Churchill’, and any questioning of him was surely to be described as the work of Putin’s shills and puppets.But that was then – and this is now, when Zelensky has been revealed as a failing leader of an incredibly corrupt country rife with real-life Nazis, and dealing with an alleged nasty drug habit.Citizens of the western countries now know that much of their taxpayer money sent to the Kiev regime was stolen by...

Zelenskyy Compromises – He Is Ready to Hold Elections... But Under Certain Conditions🤝 MS2025.12.10

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said he was ready for elections, appearing to bow to pressure from President Donald Trump, who has been upping the pressure on Ukraine to hold a national vote during the war with Russia. While there are serious challenges to holding elections in a country at war, Zelenskyy said that he was prepared to organize them as long as he got his parliament's OK and the U.S. and other allies helped ensure security. “I am ready for elections; moreover, I am now asking — and I state this openly — for the United States to help...

FOUR UNIDENTIFIED MILITARY-STYLE drones breached a no-fly zone and flew towards the flight path of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plane at sea near Dublin Airport late on Monday night, The Journal has learned. The plane landed, slightly ahead of schedule, just moments before the incident happened at about 11pm. The drones reached the location where Zelenskyy’s plane was expected to be at the exact moment it had been due to pass. The drones then orbited above an Irish Navy vessel that had secretly been deployed in the Irish Sea for the Zelenskyy visit. Sources have said that the drones took...

A Russian military victory in Ukraine would cost Europe twice as much as a Ukrainian victory, according to a new study by Corisk and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs published on Nov. 25. Under the first scenario proposed by the researchers, Moscow's forces would continue their incremental advance and push westward toward the Dnipro River. As a result of their military victories, the Kremlin would force Ukraine to accept a negotiated settlement on terms beneficial to Moscow. According to the report, such an outcome would amount to a Russian partial victory, giving the Kremlin influence over Ukraine's political and...