Free Republic

The goals of the Ukrainian army’s offensive in the summer of 2023 and the size of combat groups formed to carry it out are to a certain extent comparable with what the German military fielded for its Operation Citadel in 1943. This gives us the grounds for calling Kiev’s offensive in the summer of 2023 Operation Citadel 2.0. Considering its military-political consequences, the collapse of Citadel 2.0 meant not simply the Ukrainian army’s military-strategic defeat but also the collapse of the consolidated West’s hybrid blitzkrieg. We can state boldly that the so-called counteroffensive attempted by the Ukrainian military in the...

Who are the 10% of people who believe the Ukraine can win a war with Russia? I guess we should be celebrating – two years ago, a majority thought this was a reasonable proposition. It was always very incredible to me. I kept saying “bro, have you seen a map? Russia is like, a lot bigger than the Ukraine.”

Vladimir Putin taunted the West by taking a joyride in a modernised supersonic Tu-160M strategic nuclear bomber today - as the Kremlin threatened nuclear war. The despot's stunt - which lasted around 40 minutes - appeared to be intended to enhance his macho ratings as he stands for re-election next month -snip- Putin was seen taking off in Kazan a day after he visited a factory in the city where the Tupolev bombers are manufactured.

On Tuesday, Tucker Carlson made a striking claim about Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. According to Carlson, Johnson demanded a staggering $1 million for an interview.This came to light during Carlson’s recount of events surrounding his attempt to secure an interview with the former UK Prime Minister. Carlson, who was in Moscow for a scheduled interview with Putin, conveyed his frustration over being publicly criticized by Johnson, who accused him of being a “tool of the Kremlin.”In an effort to confront the accusations directly, Carlson sought an interview with Johnson, only to be met with...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction. Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024

Russians will take Odessa and four or five other ethnically Russian cities

Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, Commander of the Tavriia Operational and Strategic Group of Forces (OSGF), has reported that Ukraine will appeal to international humanitarian organisations and intermediary countries over "a certain number" of Ukrainian soldiers captured in the war-torn town of Avdiivka. The withdrawal of personnel from Avdiivka took place in accordance with a plan developed with due regard to various scenarios and possible changes in the operational situation. Nevertheless, at the final stage of the operation, under the pressure of the enemy's superior forces, a certain number of Ukrainian soldiers were captured."

In 1943, as the tide of war turned against the Third Reich, the German high command opted for a desperate strategy on the Eastern Front. Outnumbered and outgunned by the Red Army, the Germans pinned their hopes on a mobile, aggressive defense to stop a relentless series of Soviet offensives in Ukraine and southern Russia. As today’s Ukraine fights over many of the same battlefields of 1943, it has chosen a strategy that echoes the German approach from 80 years ago. After the failure of its much-anticipated summer counteroffensive, and running low on ammunition and stamina to fight off continual...

Ukrainian Armed Forces have announced a withdrawal from the key town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. This is a developing story and will be updated.

From the very beginning, the Moscow Metro was designed as an instrument of propaganda as well as transportation. Its grandiose stations were not only a projection of the power of the regime but also designed as a promise of sorts, a glimpse for the Soviet people of the heaven on earth that communism would (one day) deliver. It was perhaps thus appropriate that some of its marble was said (probably accurately) to have come from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which had been blown up on Stalin’s orders just a year or two before work on the metro began...

Tucker Carlson says he went “from amused to legitimately angry” at U.S. political leaders during a recent trip to a Moscow grocery store, where the independent conservative journalist and his crew guessed that a cart full of food would cost about the equivalent of $400 in American dollars – and it came in around a hundred bucks. “Coming to a Russian grocery store, the ‘heart of evil,’ and seeing what things cost and how they live, it will radicalize you against our leaders,” Carlson said in the video shot on-site as he shopped for eggs, bread, wine and other staples....

As the second anniversary of Russia's unprovoked invasion approaches, the situation is beginning to look bleak for Ukraine.Last year's counteroffensive brought hopes that Ukraine could capitalize on its successes in 2022 and drive back Russian forces from occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine.But the offensive failed to achieve a breakthrough, and Ukraine is now seeing crucial support from its allies bleed away. Meanwhile, its troops are experiencing shortages of personnel and ammunition.There are problems at the top, too. Its senior command has been engulfed in chaos, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replacing Valery Zaluzhny, a senior commander, amid reported...

And so it begins. Nine months still to go before the next US presidential election and already the Republican party favourite and former President Donald Trump is sending eyebrows and blood pressure skywards in Nato capitals with his provocative statements. And yet they will delight many of his supporters. Suggesting at a rally in South Carolina that he would "encourage" aggressors (for example Russia) "to do whatever the hell they want" with Nato countries that fail to pay their dues has prompted an immediate condemnation from the White House. A spokesman called the comment "appalling and unhinged", saying it was...

In September, 1934, William Randolph Hearst, the most famous journalist and publisher in the world, visited Berlin and interviewed Adolf Hitler. At the time, Hearst admired Hitler, and was rather taken aback when the Fuhrer asked why he was so ‘misunderstood’ in the English-language press. Hearst replied that Americans love democracy and distrusted dictatorships, to which Hitler answered that he had been democratically elected by a vast majority of Germans. Hearst then said that Americans were concerned about the treatment of a certain unnamed minority. Hitler duly pointed out that Americans had mistreated Native Indian tribes and assured Hearst that...

Tucker Carlson has confirmed he is in Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin - and he's doing it because 'Americans are not informed' about the war in Ukraine. The former Fox News host announced on X on Tuesday that he would be publishing an interview with the Russian despot, following widespread speculation after he was pictured leaving the Kremlin in Moscow on Monday. Carlson, 54, said the interview would air 'unedited' on his website, without a paywall, and on X, making him the first American to interview Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. 'Two years into a war that's reshaping...

Heavy Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv killed at least four people, wounded dozens and caused widespread damage on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said. The attacks struck residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, hours after President Vladimir Putin said an air strike on the Russian city of Belgorod that Moscow said killed 24 civilians and blamed on Ukraine “will not go unpunished”. Russia has stepped up air strikes on Ukraine over the New Year period, and on Friday conducted its largest air attack of the almost two-year-old war on Ukraine, killing at least 39 people....

Ukraine faces defeat as early as next summer if American and Nato military aid dries up, a senior US official has warned.Vladimir Putin’s chances of victory have been buoyed by war fatigue and blocks on funding in both America and the EU.“There is no guarantee of success with us, but they are certain to fail without us,” a senior US military source told CNN.Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, last week blocked a £43 billion EU aid package for Ukraine.Austria had also threatened to block the bill until Kyiv toned down criticism of an Austrian bank still working in Russia. Western...

Hungary has blocked €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) in EU aid for Ukraine - just hours after an agreement was reached on starting membership talks. "Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after Thursday's talks in Brussels. EU leaders said the aid negotiations would resume early next year. Ukraine is critically dependent on EU and US funding as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces. The aid blocking was announced by Mr Orban shortly after the EU leaders decided to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status...

With Ukraine’s military facing mounting deaths and a stalemate on the battlefield, army recruiters have become increasingly aggressive in their efforts to replenish the ranks, in some cases pulling men off the streets and whisking them to recruiting centers using intimidation and even physical force. Recruiters have confiscated passports, taken people from their jobs and, in at least one case, tried to send a mentally disabled person to military training, according to lawyers, activists and Ukrainian men who have been subject to coercive tactics. Videos of soldiers shoving people into cars and holding men against their will in recruiting centers...

As Russia's war against Ukraine is set to soon enter its third year, Ukraine is getting desperate for more troops, so much so that military recruiters have confiscated people's passports and even tried to enlist a mentally disabled man, per a new report on recruiting efforts citing lawyers, activists, and other concerned civilians. "There's lawlessness here," a 58-year-old Ukrainian taxi driver told The New York Times in a report published on Friday that details the forceful tactics Ukraine military recruiters have been reportedly taking to boost the Eastern European country's manpower in the bloody fight against Russia. The taxi driver...