Free Republic

Yes. I think they will. But not because Russia is running out of shells and rockets. Nope. I think China wants a chance to field test some of its weaponry and drones against a foe that shoots back in order to see how they perform in a combat environment. Firing artillery or surface-to-air missiles on a closed range does not compare with lighting them up on a bona fide battlefield.The warnings to China to not help Russia is not new. One year ago the Biden team put out the word that:China will face consequences if it helps Russia evade sanctions...

There was perhaps only one truth spoken during Vladimir Putin’s two-hour state of the nation address: that Russia would suspend its participation in the New Start treaty with the US. The rest was yet another a trip down the rabbit hole into the Russian president’s parallel universe Putin continues to make veiled nuclear threats, and did so again in this address when he stated that western declarations on ensuring a strategic defeat for Russia were an existential threat “to which we know how to react”. Threats to the existence of the Russian state allow for a first-use nuclear strike in...

'At the operational-tactical level, we did not think that within a year we would not be able to liberate the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 'We did not think that there would be such heavy losses, although I then said there would be tens of thousands of dead on both sides. 'But everything turned out to be much worse.' Some estimates say the losses on both sides are now over 200,000, and rising fast. Russia alone is estimated to have lost as many as 140,000 since February last year. 'It was not expected that there would be such destruction: in fact,...

Vladimir Putin has deployed air defence systems around Moscow, suggesting the despot fears an attack from Ukraine. He has deployed lethal S-400 defence missiles to two locations in the capital, designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles. Local residents say the deployments are new to the Russian capital. The tyrant's latest move comes after two drone strikes on Russian two air bases in Saratov and Ryazan in December, both suspected to be from Ukrainian forces. One S-400 air defence system has been deployed in fields belonging to the Russian State Agricultural University in the northwest of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will call up hundreds of thousands of additional troops to continue trying to invade Ukraine this month — a move that will be done quietly. The muted mobilization was reported by Russian independent outlet Volya last week, citing sources in the Russian military’s General Staff. “The Ministry of Defense needs to recruit about 700,000 more people for the war by February,” the outlet reported, adding, “[O]fficials, politicians and generals will publicly assert that there is no mobilization.”

MOSCOW — Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to engage in talks, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired Sunday. Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. There is, thus far, little end in sight to the war. The Kremlin says it will fight until all its aims are achieved while Kyiv says it will not rest until...

Fumbling blindly through cratered farms, the troops from Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade had no maps, medical kits or working walkie-talkies, they said. Just a few weeks earlier, they had been factory workers and truck drivers, watching an endless showcase of supposed Russian military victories at home on state television before being drafted in September. One medic was a former barista who had never had any medical training. Now, they were piled onto the tops of overcrowded armored vehicles, lumbering through fallow autumn fields with Kalashnikov rifles from half a century ago and virtually nothing to eat, they said. Russia...

Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation, has pretended he has nothing to do with the deaths of Russian soldiers in the war he had waged, comparing losses on the front line to deaths from road accidents and alcohol. Source: video recording of Putin’s conversation with "soldiers’ mothers" Quote from Putin: "Of course, this is a huge tragedy [the death of a relative - ed.]. It is a void that cannot be filled with anything when a loved one is gone, especially a son. But you know what comes to my mind: in our country, about 30,000 people die...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there is no need for more massive strikes on Ukraine, days after the heaviest bombardment of the country since the war began. He said most designated targets of the strikes had been hit, adding that it was not his aim to destroy Ukraine. Moscow's goal of mobilising 300,000 men would be met within two weeks, he said. Mr Putin's words come as Russian forces seem stalled and Ukraine advances, almost eight months since the invasion. Speaking to journalists after a summit with regional leaders in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, the Russian leader said that the...

Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, says his party has lost two elections in a row - "big-time'' - and it's time to rally anew. On the spat that radio's Rush Limbaugh has stirred with President Barack Obama, prompting the White House and Democratic Party alike to assert that radio's "Rush'' is the new voice of the GOP, McCain had this to say on the FOX News Channel today: "I think there's a lot of voices in our party. Rush Limbaugh is one of them,'' McCain told Neil Cavuto on FOX's Your World with Cavuto. "(RNC Chairman) Michael...