Free Republic

The more NATO/EU hypocrisy creates friction with President Trump; the less U.S. support exists for Ukraine. That’s the dynamic Zelenskyy is trying desperately to navigate with his EU allies.During a lengthy interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy says he has been directly told the only way for Ukraine to get security guarantees from USA participation is if he concedes the contested Donbas region to Russia and ends the conflict. (snip) That said, when Zelenskyy once again starts asking who is going to pay for the needs of his country, the U.S. taxpayer eyeroll commences. (snip) It’s never enough for this guy. Ukraine...

Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the U.S. under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran, such as the precise coordinates of U.S. military assets in the Middle East, if Washington ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia.Two people familiar with the U.S.-Russia negotiations said that such a proposal was made by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev to Trump administration envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during their meeting last week in Miami.The U.S. rejected the proposal, the people added. They, like all other officials cited in this article, were granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of...

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security and foreign policy committee in the Iranian parliament, wrote on X that Ukraine had effectively entered the war by supporting Israel with drones A senior Iranian lawmaker warned Saturday that Ukraine could become a “legitimate target” for Iran, accusing Kyiv of assisting Israel during the ongoing conflict. Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security and foreign policy committee in the Iranian parliament, wrote on X that Ukraine had effectively entered the war by supporting Israel with drones. “By providing support to the Israeli regime with drones, the collapsing Ukraine has in fact become...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reached out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to request a phone call, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel. The official does not say what Netanyahu wishes to discuss. According to Ynet, Netanyahu wants to discuss cooperating on countering Iranian drones, which Ukraine has been facing for years.

Russia has a question for the European countries that have shunned its energy exports: Do you miss us now? The Kremlin is enjoying a sudden resurgence of its importance as a global supplier of oil and gas, as the conflict in Iran disrupts energy production and shipment across the Middle East and sends global energy prices soaring. “Now other markets are opening up, and perhaps it’s more advantageous for us to stop supplying the European market right now,” Mr. Putin said on Wednesday to a state television reporter, Pavel Zarubin, who chronicles the Russian leader. “We are seeing an increase...

Russia has been sharing intelligence with Iran on the location of US forces in the Middle East in an attempt to help Tehran fight back, according to a new report. The Kremlin has passed on the locations of American warships, aircrafts and other military assets ever since “Operation Epic Fury” kicked off a week ago, three sources told the Washington Post Friday. “It does seem like it’s a pretty comprehensive effort,” one official familiar with the intel told the outlet.

Russia is one of the biggest winners in the early days of the largest U.S. military confrontation in decades, as Iranian missiles deplete stocks of Patriot interceptors that Ukraine needs for its defense. Even before the Iran campaign, production bottlenecks in the U.S.-made Patriot system had drained Ukraine’s reserves and left European allies on yearslong waiting lists. Those shortfalls have allowed Russia to punch through gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses, devastating its power infrastructure and casting Ukrainian cities into blackouts.

The port of Novorossiysk was struck on the night of March 2 by drones of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Defense Forces — military ships, air defense systems, and oil infrastructure were hit, sources told Ukrainska Pravda. Source: interlocutors of Ukrainska Pravda in the Security Service of Ukraine. Direct quote from a UP source: “The season of spring ‘bavovna’ has begun… Drones of the Special Operations Center ‘Alpha’ of the SSU, together with other components of the Defense Forces (the State Border Guard Service, Defense Intelligence, the Unmanned Systems Forces and Special Operations Forces), staged a bright ‘bavovna’...

Ukraine's government says Russia indicated during recent talks in Geneva that it could accept U.S.-backed security guarantees as part of a potential post-war settlement, though major differences remain unresolved. On Saturday, Kyrylo Budanov, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a televised interview that Russian representatives signaled openness to security guarantees proposed by the United States, reported Reuters. "At the last talks, the Russian side said for example that they would accept the security guarantees offered to Ukraine by the United States," Budanov said.

"This is the proportional response that Russia has the right to," the Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman stressedMOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. A nuclear strike on targets in Ukraine, as well as in France and the United Kingdom, would be considered lawful and justified in the event that London and Paris provide Kiev with nuclear capabilities, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Max, commenting on Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service’s (SVR) reports about such plans by the two European countries. According to Medvedev, this information "radically changes the situation." "This is a direct transfer of nuclear weapons to a...

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.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday questioned Russia's seriousness about ending the Ukraine war, as Washington pushes for a swift peace deal. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Rubio said the conflict was approaching its fifth year and that there was still no clarity over Moscow's willingness to negotiate.

Meanwhile, Moscow is citing fictitious Ukrainian counter-offensives to explain why it doesn’t control territories its forces were claiming they’d seized in Zaporizhia oblast; it looks like Putin’s frontline commanders are afraid to tell the high command they’re failing. Poor Vlad: Having caught on to how Putin’s thugs were using hijacked Starlink terminals to guide their drones in massive long-distance attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid and civilian population, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now blocking of Russian access to Starlink, disabling Moscow’s frontline command-and-control communications for another game-changer. Russia’s damning whine: Blocking it from Starlink is (somehow) a violation of international law....

Russian soldiers and military bloggers have railed against the Kremlin after it restricted access to the Telegram messaging app. Widespread disruptions to the app were reported on Monday and Tuesday as Roskomnadzor, the Russian state media regulator, said it would levy its strongest restrictions on Telegram’s operations yet. The internet watchdog said the move would safeguard Russian citizens against “criminal and terrorist” content, in Moscow’s latest crackdown on the free internet. Roskomnadzor, which has for years crusaded for a “sovereign internet” liberated from Western influence, has over the past six months imposed new limits on Telegram and WhatsApp at least...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the US wants the war with Russia to end by June, adding that both sides had been invited to the US for talks next week. "America proposed for the first time that the two negotiating teams – Ukraine and Russia – meet in the United States of America, probably in Miami, in a week. We confirmed our participation," he said. There was no immediate comment from Washington or Moscow, but US President Donald Trump has been pushing for an end for the conflict since he took office again more than a year ago. Meanwhile, Russia...

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia agreed with ⁠President Donald Trump that it was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not Russia, who was holding up a potential peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. Trump's assessment in an interview with Reuters contrasted that of European allies, who have consistently argued that Moscow has ‍little interest in ending the fighting and wants to take as much ‍territory as it can while seeking to stave off further Western sanctions. "I think he's ready to make a deal," Trump said ⁠of Putin when speaking to Reuters in the Oval Office on Wednesday....

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has continued for as long as Nazi Germany’s war against the Soviet Union, with Moscow failing to achieve any decisive gains over more than three years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy drew the comparison in his evening address on January 11. “We are not dragging out time, unlike Russia. They have dragged things out enough, to be honest. Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has now lasted as long as Nazi Germany’s war against the Soviet Union,” Zelenskyy said. He noted that, as of January 11, the war has entered its 1,418th day and said Russia had...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st8GKlONVz8 Jan 11, 2026 The CIA has been quietly helping Ukraine target Russian oil infrastructure, and in this video I explain why that shift has nothing to do with explosions and everything to do with breaking systems. This isn’t Hollywood spy stuff. It’s industrial warfare aimed at the parts Russia cannot easily replace. I break down how Ukraine moved from flashy refinery strikes to precision attacks on critical bottlenecks, why intelligence agencies excel at identifying industrial choke points, and how hitting the right component can keep a refinery offline for weeks or months. This is pressure applied at the foundation...

Yesterday, the fearsome Russian Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile ‘Oreshnik’ (‘Hazel’) was launched from the Kapustin Yar range toward Lvov, right on the Polish (and NATO) border. The multi-warhead missile destroyed Europe’s largest underground gas storage facility, the Bilche-Volytsko-Uherske in Stryi. The capacity of this facility accounted for over 50% of all Ukrainian gas storage. The “Oreshnik” flew to Lviv in 10–15 minutes — traveling 1,800 km at a speed of over 6 thousand miles per hour. The US knew in advance of the attack, since the American Kiev embassy issued a call earlier warning of a ‘potentially significant air attack’.

"And here we can see the approximate routes of attacks that took place between the 7th and 8th of January of 2026 when the Russians as you can see according to this map were attacking just the Nepro region. And if you remember, we discussed the situation yesterday because after these attacks there are huge problems with energy supply, heat supply, water supply took place exactly on the territory of the city. And uh these pictures and these photos were published by pro Ukrainian sources there. As you can see, there is a complete blackout and complete national disaster in...