Free Republic

...[captioning continues:] This only exacerbates the conflict, adds to the suffering of victims & refugees. ...exacerbates food and energy sources and accelerates global inflation. All this causes damage to the vast majority of the peoples of the world. The great powers openly or tacitly position themselves in the face of the conflict in Ukraine in order to serve their hegemonic interests. Therefore it is impossible not to suspect that this war, although it seems perverse and incredible, serves the interests of the military industry."

Advisory - Story has been withdrawn - Multiple bodies found at mass burial site in Ukraine's Izium with rope around necks

The Biden administration has just announced yet another new weapons package for Ukraine worth $600 million, which now brings to total US military aid pledged since the start of the conflict to $15.1 billion. Crucially, in this case the arms are being sent under the presidential drawdown authority, which allows the White House to take arms directly from US military stockpiles for use by foreign allied forces. The administration confirmed it was the 21st time it drew from Pentagon stockpiles. The Guardian details, “Joe Biden authorized the latest assistance using his Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to authorize...

Click here to see ISW’s interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This map is updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report. The Kremlin acknowledged its defeat in Kharkiv Oblast, the first time Moscow has openly recognized a defeat since the start of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin officials and state media propagandists are extensively discussing the reasons for the Russian defeat in Kharkiv Oblast, a marked change from their previous pattern of reporting on exaggerated or fabricated Russian successes with limited detail.[1] The Kremlin never admitted that Russia was defeated around Kyiv or,...

It started with Crimea and it will end with Crimea. The grinding war of attrition is into its seventh month with no peace settlement on the horizon. Before the invasion, the issue of Crimea did not top the international agenda. It was not even included in the infamous Minsk Accords and the work of the Trilateral Contact Group, forcing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to look for new formats to voice the Crimea case loud and clear. In turn, Putin legitimised the illegal annexation through false historical narratives, nurturing it with recognition from his authoritarian friends. International actors expressed their traditional concern...

All have fallen for the believe that the Ukrainian rapid advance has caused a Russian defeat. That however is not the case. The main Russian forces had already left the area. What was left were sentry guards of the Luhansk People’s Republic and a few companies of the Russian National Guard which is more or less a police force. That is why the ‘western’ official talking with Reuters is quite cautious with his assessment: “There’s an ongoing debate about the nature of the Russian drawdown, however it’s likely that in strict military terms, this was a withdrawal, ordered and sanctioned...

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is calling for Europeans to be cut off from electricity in order to “flatten the curve,” in a call-back to the propaganda used to destroy and demoralize populations during the COVID pandemic. “We see there’s a global scarcity of energy. So whatever we do, one thing is for sure, we have to save electricity, but we have to save it in a smart way,” she said. “So what we have to do is flatten the curve and avoid the peak demands,” Leyen added. “We will propose a mandatory target for reducing...

Asked about the potential impact of Europe's unfolding cost of living and energy crises on support for Ukraine, Von der Leyen said supporting Ukraine "comes at a high cost, but our freedom, the international peace order, and democracy, is priceless."Supporting Ukraine comes at a high cost, but freedom is "priceless," European Commission chief Urszula Von der Leyen said on Thursday amid soaring inflation and high energy prices in Europe.The EU's sanctions on Russia are having a deep and visible impact, European Commission President Urszula Von der Leyen told Reuters at an interview in Kyiv, shortly after she met Ukraine's President...

Over the roughly two decades that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been in power, he's dedicated a lot of time and money to building up and modernizing Russia's military. In the process, Putin garnered a reputation as a force to be reckoned with and was widely viewed as one of the most powerful leaders in the world. But the war in Ukraine has decimated the Russian military that Putin spent years building, while raising questions about his grip on power, Russia experts and military analysts told Insider. "Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic defeat. So far the Kremlin...

The first statement made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her annual State of the European Union address on Wednesday was not verbal, but visual. Clad in bright blue and yellow alongside other senior politicians, she showed support for Ukraine's battle with Russia, making clear even before the speech began that the war would top the agenda. With Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska in Strasbourg for the occasion, von der Leyen pledged Europe's "unshakeable" commitment to Kyiv, sending a defiant message to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. "Putin will fail and Europe will prevail," the chief...

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck noted on Thursday, at the sidelines of the G7 trade ministers meeting in Brandenburg, that Ukraine will need around $350 billion to reconstruct itself.Habeck stressed that the "reconstruction of Ukraine requires more than public money can offer" and urged the international community to "create a global fund with money from private investors, hedge funds and so on."Habeck stated that trade should also be utilized to "stabilize Ukraine once again." Finally, the German economy minister assured that Berlin will supply Kiev with more weapons.

-President Zelensky was involved in crash involving his motorcade and other car -Accident occurred in Kyiv and he was examined by doctors afterwards -He does not have serious injuries after the crash in Ukraine's capital -The driver of the car was taken to hospital in an ambulance for treatment President Zelensky was checked by medics but is not seriously hurt after a car crashed into his motorcade leaving the driver needing hospital treatment. His spokesman said that the accident occurred in Kyiv and he was examined by doctors travelling with him afterwards. He does not have serious injuries after the...

Roughly 2 hours in length (Excellent summary, with detailed maps, for those wanting the latest news)

Surrounded by prisoners dressed in black, a man identified as Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of a shadowy mercenary group, makes this pitch: Come fight in Ukraine and be rewarded with your freedom — if you can make it back alive. "Nobody goes back behind bars," Prigozhin, founder of the Russian private military company Wagner, can be seen telling men in a video from a Russian prison yard, per a translation from The Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov. "If you serve six months, you are free. If you arrive in Ukraine and decide it's not for you, we execute you." He...

The guns had gone quiet after three days of fighting in Balakliia. Mariya said only when she saw Ukrainian soldiers did she know six months Russian occupation had ended. "I was walking ... when I saw an armored personnel carrier coming onto the square with a Ukrainian flag: my heart just tightened up and I began to sob." At the site of one exhumed grave, Valentyna, the mother of 49-year-old Petro, cursed the war and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "No one can return my son to me." Tymofiyeva said it had been clear Russia, which invaded Ukraine, planned to annex...

Russia is said to be canceling plans to send new troops to Ukraine as more of its service members are reportedly refusing to fight following humiliating losses on the battlefield. Ukrainian intelligence reported Wednesday that members of the 5th Separate Tank Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces are surrendering their military benefits in order to resign for their refusal to fight. “At the same time, a catastrophic shortage of personnel is seen in the units taking part in the war against Ukraine,” the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said. ... In the latest audio released by Ukraine’s defense...

The free people of independent Ukraine! And that says it all. Just four words, but how much is behind them today. On the 182nd day of the full-scale war. How many symbols and meanings, feats and losses, joy and pain are in these words. And mainly how much truth is in them. Our truth. Truth about our present, with which it is impossible to argue, as it is impossible not to see and not to admit. We are the free people of independent Ukraine. After six months of the attempts to destroy us, we are the free people of independent...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ventured beyond the relative safety of Kyiv on Wednesday to visit the recently liberated city of Izyum, where he promised to drive Russian forces from all of Ukraine. “Our blue-yellow flag is already flying in de-occupied Izyum. And it will be so in every Ukrainian city and village,” he said on social media during the visit. “We are moving in only one direction — forward and towards victory.” A supply and logistic hub for Russian operations in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, the retaking of Izyum represents a strategic win for Ukraine as well as...

Putin's commanders have begun quietly fleeing Crimea as they try to sell their homes and get their families back to Russia, Ukrainian spies have claimed. Russian FSB agents and those working for the occupying government are also trying to get off the peninsula, which has been occupied by Kremlin forces since 2014. Officials have been spooked by the rapid advance of Ukrainian forces across the north of the country in recent days, the military intelligence service added, amid reports that soldiers are withdrawing from Melitopol - just 70 miles away.