Free Republic

A Russian military transport plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war crashed near the border between the two nations Wednesday, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of shooting down the aircraft, Kremlin officials say. The Russian Ilyushin Il-76 plane was carrying 74 people, including six crew members and three guards who were set to deliver the POWs in exchange for Russian captives, according to state news agency RIA’s quotes from the defense ministry. Andrei Kartapolov, a Russian lawmaker, claimed during a parliamentary session Wednesday that the plane had been shot down by three missiles.

Scientists are using a series of DNA tests to identify the remains of missing service members and bring closure to generations of families. More than 81,000 Americans are missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars and other conflicts, according to the U.S. Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency.

The remains of a 24-year-old U.S. pilot who never returned from a bombing mission in World War II have been accounted for and confirmed, officials from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Monday. Charles G. Reynolds was a U.S. Army Air Forces first lieutenant from Bridgeport, Ohio, the agency said in a news release. In late 1943, he was a pilot assigned to the 498th Bombardment Squadron in the Pacific Theater. On Nov. 27, 1943, the plane that he was a crewmember of did not return from a bombing mission near Wewak, New Guinea, the agency said, because the aircraft...

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The passage of almost 60 years has done nothing to dim former Navy fighter pilot Everett Alvarez Jr.’s memories of the night that he was shot down in the South China Sea and began what would be the second-longest period of captivity for an American service member in the Vietnam War. At 85 years old, Alvarez still vividly remembers his Douglas A4 Skyhawk filling with smoke and coming apart as he had just a few seconds to make a series of life-or-death choices. “I was really low. I knew I had to get out right there,” he...

UKRAINIAN POW SHARES HIS EXPERIENCE OF SERVING IN UKRAINIAN ARMY Look into terrible situation facing young Ukrainians. Sad story of conditions of young Ukrainian soldiers forced to fight for Ukraine Brutal treatment by foreign mercenaries, poor communication, poor morale, leadership in the rear, threats by Azov soldiers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday vowed to find those responsible for the death of a Ukrainian soldier who was seen executed in a brutal video posted online. Zelenksy’s response comes after a video circulated showing a Ukrainian soldier being shot to death by Russians right after saying “Slava Ukraini,” or “Glory to Ukraine,” on the battlefield, according to multiple reports. The apparently freshly captured Ukrainian is seen smoking a cigarette in a ditch before a Russian yells out “you b—-,” a barrage of gunfire is heard and the soldier falls to the ground as the Russian adds “die, b—-,”...

Ukraine said Tuesday it had identified a soldier shot dead in a video that circulated widely across social media, sparking outrage and spurring officials to call for a probe. "According to preliminary data, the deceased is a serviceman of the 30th separate mechanised brigade, Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura," the Ukrainian land forces said on Telegram, adding he had been missing since February 3 amid fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Russian soldiers executed an unarmed Ukrainian military man - a prisoner of war - for the words “Glory to Ukraine.” The video of this crime has appeared on various social media. Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian online newspaper, wrote on Monday, that it is unclear where and when the video was made. The video shows a military officer being taken into Russian captivity. As he utters the words “Glory to Ukraine,” a Russian military officer shoots him with a machine gun.

section class="post-body"> Wednesday, September 21, 2022, Ukrainian authorities announced they had secured the release of 215 prisoners of war, including the commanders of the Azov Battalion defenders of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol. They entered captivity, based on a false promise by the Russian Army of rapid exchange when Mariupol finally surrendered (Mariupol Defenders Reject Russian Demand for Surrender Setting up the Largest Siege of a City Since WWII and Mariupol Surrenders to the Russian Army After Epic 82-Day Siege). In return, Ukraine released 55 Russians. The description of them is a little cagey, indicating that some...

These two were part of a 10 man foreign volunteer squad called "team baguette", part of the large foreign legion attached to the Ukraine military. They are volunteers who previously worked for the US military, but are not active duty anymore. They were captured in the Kharkov area, having bad intel that Russians weren't where they were going. (Click link for video)

Harold Billow, 99, the last known survivor of a World War II POW massacre during the Battle of the Bulge, will be laid to rest Thursday in Pennsylvania. Billow, who died May 17, was attached to the Army’s 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when his unit surrendered and he was taken prisoner by Waffen SS soldiers as German forces launched an offensive in Belgium to try to change the war’s tide in December 1944. According to various accounts, the Germans opened fire on the unarmed prisoners in a field, killing more than 80 in what came to be known as...

Ellie Smith @elliekaysmith PSA if you’re going to tweet something snarky about CNN+, hundreds of journalists and technicians who did nothing but work their tails off just had the rug pulled out from under them. So be kind. Kristi Noem @KristiNoem Now you know how the Keystone XL Pipeline workers feel.

Come join us Friday May 13, 2022 – Sunday May 15, 2022 for the Camp Aliceville WWII POW Camp Reenactment located at the Aliceville Museum in Aliceville, AL. Camp Aliceville was one of the largest POW camps in America from 1943-1945 housing over 6000 mostly Afrika Korps prisoners. To honor the history of Aliceville’s great contribution to the war and honor all of those who served…we will be putting on a period accurate reenactment of the WWII prison camp for those days. We welcome reenactors to portray Rommel's Afrika Korps and Luftwaffe POW's as well as American MP's and Alabama...

More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in the besieged port of Mariupol, Russia’s defense ministry said on Wednesday of Moscow’s main target in the eastern Donbas region which it has yet to bring under its control. If the Russians take the Azovstal industrial district, where the marines have been holed up, they would be in full control of Mariupol, Ukraine’s main Sea of Azov port, which would allow Russia to reinforce a land corridor between separatist-held eastern areas and the Crimea region that it seized and annexed in 2014.

128 brigade captured the high-ranking staff of the 58th Russian army. Lieutenant Colonel Rosarmia was dressed in a skirt of underwear and socks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the process of a combat clash with the rosarmia of the 128 separate mountain storm brigade captured the head of the Russian army's information-psychological counterpart group of the 47084 military unit (on one of the photos is a battlefield and destroyed by our fighters ro a sia truck). Here are the data of the prisoner - Koshel Alexander Olegovich, born April 5, 1982, personal number F-905994, military title - lieutenant...

A captured Russian soldier has described how he was shot at and his comrade killed after fellow troops opened fire on them when they tried to protect Ukrainian civilians. In a video, the POW described how he and a lieutenant tried to save a woman in her 20s, and her mother, after Russian soldiers were given orders to fire on civilians on February 24 in Kharkiv. In the clip, the captured soldier claimed he was shot in the foot, and the lieutenant killed, when other troops realised the pair weren't shooting at civilians. It comes as a separate video showed...

A Russian commander captured by Ukraine condemned Moscow’s “genocide” invasion — saying in a remarkable televised statement that the troops were duped into believing Kyiv had been overthrown by Nazis and needed liberating. National Guard Lt. Col. Astakhov Dmitry Mikhailovich, who was captured along with two other soldiers, said he had been told they were being sent to help Ukraine because it was “dominated by a fascist regime” and that “nationalists and Nazis had seized power.” “Obviously, this information was unilateral information,” Mikhailovich told reporters in a video that emerged Monday. National Guard Lt. Col. Astakhov Dmitry Mikhailovich condemned Moscow’s...

None of the mercenaries the West is sending to Ukraine to fight for the nationalist regime will enjoy the right of combatants under international humanitarian law, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. "I wish to make an official statement that none of the mercenaries the West is sending to Ukraine to fight for the nationalist regime in Kiev can be considered as combatants in accordance with international humanitarian law or enjoy the status of prisoners of war," Konashenkov stressed. He stated that all acts of sabotage by mercenaries in Ukraine were being carried out with the use of weapons...

Ukrainian Pres. Zelensky claims morale of Putin's Russian forces is deteriorating in a powerful address adding his forces have so-far killed 9,000 invaders, a claim disputed by Moscow. He also said his country had thwarted Russia's sneaky plans, and he was proud of the heroic resistance to Moscow's shocking invasion. "We are a nation that broke the enemy's plans in a week. Plans written for years: sneaky, full of hatred for our country, our people. Our military, our border guards, our territorial defense, even ordinary farmers capture the Russian military every day. All the captives say only one thing: they...

The Sixth Circuit Court has denied the federal government’s motions to transfer the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vaccine mandate lawsuit to Washington, D.C. and hold it in abeyance, dealing another blow to the Biden regime that has banked on the relatively small agency’s ability to enforce its divisive mandate. In the court documents, posted to Twitter by populist pundit Election Wizard, the Court denied the government’s motion to transfer the case to Washington, D.C., denying the government’s request to hold the case in abeyance. The Court also granted two unions, the International Electrotechnical Commission and the IEC Florida...