Free Republic

The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces said Sunday Kyiv’s position on the frontline had deteriorated and that Russia had made a number of recent battlefield gains. Russia’s troops have gone back on the offensive this year, capitalising on an advantage in manpower and arms to press forward, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region. “The situation at the front has worsened,” Oleksandr Syrsky said in a Facebook post Sunday. He said Ukrainian troops had “retreated” to new defensive lines further to the west in some areas, conceding the loss of territory to the advancing Russians.

The missing American who’d traveled to Ukraine years ago to aid Russian separatists in Donbas was found dead in the country’s war-torn eastern region. The body of Russell Bentley, a 64-year-old U.S. Army vet, was recovered in the Russian-controlled region of Donetsk Oblast, Reuters reported. -snip- The former pothead, who used “Texas” as his military call-sign, left behind a yoga instructor girlfriend to travel to Ukraine. He utilized crowdfunding sites to finance his trip, and had since become a Russian citizen. He also got married after moving to Ukraine, where he began working as a reporter for the state-owned Sputnik...