Free Republic

Russia’s gasoline sales hit a two-year low on Tuesday as Ukrainian drone strikes and surging harvest-season demand intensify the country’s fuel shortage. Data from the St. Petersburg Exchange, reported by Kommersant on Wednesday, shows that sales of A-92 petrol dropped 21.7 percent to 15,600 metric tons on Tuesday, the lowest level since 2023. Sales of A-95 petrol fell 15.5 percent to 12,060 tons compared with the previous day, bringing total gasoline sales on the exchange down 19.1 percent to 27,700 tons. The sharp decline comes amid unscheduled shutdowns at several large Russian refineries, as Kyiv reportedly escalated its campaign against...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is deliberately slowing its economic growth in order to suppress inflation. "As for the decline from more than 4% GDP growth: this is not a decline, it is a deliberate action. It is a slowdown in growth in exchange for curbing inflation and maintaining macroeconomic stability," Putin said during a televised meeting with top lawmakers. A graph published in Russian central bank's report earlier in September showed two consecutive quarters of gross domestic product (GDP) decline in quarter-on-quarter terms, aligning with the common definition of a technical recession.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the number of Russian servicemen currently in the war zone in Ukraine, APA's Moscow bureau reports. He noted at a meeting with the leaders of the State Duma factions that more than 700,000 Russian servicemen are currently on the line of contact.

Vladimir Putin’s blundering chief TV propagandist has given away the top secret location of Russia’s most elite drone unit. An unburied toilet sign in a report by Vladimir Solovyov led to the Rubicon HQ being geolocated. The trail leads to Hall D and part of Hall C at the Patriot Exhibition Centre, near Moscow. The site has been already targeted by Ukrainian attack drones, and could be again. Solovyov is a highly-paid state TV propagandist for Putin and the war - and the careless blunder failing to mask the toilet signs in a report about Rubicon is a huge embarrassment....

Russia's state oil and gas sales in September are set to fall by around 23% from a year earlier on lower prices and a stronger rouble, Reuters calculations show, hitting Moscow's biggest source of revenue. The projected decline comes as President Vladimir Putin and his economic officials are preparing Russia's 2026 budget while funding its highest military spending since the Cold War.

Ukraine has carried out a drone attack on a Gazprom-owned oil refinery in Bashkortostan, APA reports, citing Unian. The strike targeted the ELOU-AVT-4 unit of the facility No further details have been provided regarding the incident.

Russian forces are preparing two more large-scale offensives after three failed campaigns this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed on Monday (September 16). Speaking during an interview with Sky News, the Ukrainian leader said: "The mood in Europe and the US is indeed changing a little. Overall, I am glad, truly glad, that all of Russia's advances, all of their offensive missions – there have been three – and they are planning two more heavy offensive campaigns. Their last three missions have failed. In my view, this is a very important signal". The remarks follow earlier reports that Russian President Vladimir...

Special Presidential Envoy Keith Kellogg on Monday said he and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently advised President Trump that Russia is losing its war on Ukraine — as Moscow has seen more than 1 million casualties while taking less than 1% of Ukrainian territory since November 2022. Speaking at the Yalta European Security Conference in Kyiv, Kellogg revealed he and the chairman, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, each reassured the president of Moscow’s wilting position roughly six weeks ago — shortly before Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. “If Putin thinks Russia is...

Ukrainian forces launched an overnight strike on Sept. 16 targeting the Saratov oil refinery in southwestern Russia, causing explosions and a major fire, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported. The refinery, operated by Rosneft, produces more than 20 petroleum products—including gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, and bitumen—and processed 4.8 million metric tons in 2023. Ukrainian authorities said the facility supports the Russian military, making it a strategic target, News.Az reports, citing foreign media. The strike was reportedly carried out in coordination between Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces and other military branches. Officials are still assessing the full extent of the...

The Trump administration’s first US weapons aid packages for Ukraine have been approved and could soon ship as Washington resumes sending arms to Kyiv - this time under a new financial agreement with allies, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Tuesday. This is the first use of a new mechanism developed by the US and allies to supply Ukraine with weapons from US stocks using funds from NATO countries. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby has approved as many as two $500 million shipments under the new mechanism called the Priority Ukraine Requirements List, known under...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday personally supervised the joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises Zapad-2025, the Kremlin said. Putin arrived at the Mulino training ground in the Nizhny Novgorod region wearing a military uniform as he is also commander-in-chief of the Russian army. Addressing the participants, the president said the goal of the exercises is to practice defending the Union State – a name for the alliance between Russia and Belarus – from any aggression. "The purpose of this exercise is to train all necessary elements for unconditional protection of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and defense against any aggression towards the Union...

A rare £44 million Russian naval ship has suffered significant damage after being attacked by Ukrainian special forces in the Black Sea, it is claimed. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said the vessel has been “put out of action for expensive repairs” after crucial electronic systems were destroyed in the drone strike. Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR) said the attack happened near Novorossiysk where Russia’s depleted Black Sea Fleet is now based. The 240ft MPSV07 was reportedly carrying out patrols and electronic reconnaissance near the entrance to the port when it was struck by a Ukrainian-made combat drone. Footage released by...

Kim Jong-un’s rare decision to blame Russia for battlefield failures in Ukraine is less about Moscow and more about the fragility of his own regime, according to an expert. The North Korean leader has publicly wept for fallen soldiers and aired documents acknowledging heavy losses. North Korea is thought to have contributed around 10,000 soldiers to Vladimir Putin’s war, of which, according to intelligence sources in South Korea, more than 1,000 troops have been killed in action and some 4,000 wounded. Footage shown on Korean Central Television displayed internal military reports signed by Kim. One document stated that “Russian army...

Special Presidential Envoy Keith Kellogg on Monday said he and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently advised President Trump that Russia is losing its war on Ukraine — as Moscow has seen more than 1 million casualties while taking less than 1% of Ukrainian territory since November 2022. Speaking at the Yalta European Security Conference in Kyiv, Kellogg revealed he and the chairman, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, each reassured the president of Moscow’s wilting position roughly six weeks ago — shortly before Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. -snip- “I responded quite forcefully,...

Beijing called Washington's proposal for the G7 and NATO nations to impose tariffs on China and other nations that purchase Russian oil a "typical act of unilateral bullying" and "economic coercion" on Monday, threatening retaliatory actions if the proposal is implemented. According to PTI, as the US and Chinese delegations reassembled in Spain on Monday for the second day of their discussions on trade and economic matters, China rejected the US drive.​ Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lin Jian stated during a routine news briefing that China's regular energy and economic cooperation with nations worldwide, including Russia, is acceptable, legal, and...

Donald Trump's special envoy to Ukraine said the United States would 'kick Russia's a*s' on the battlefield in the event of all-out war. Keith Kellogg, the U.S Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, and a retired lieutenant general, suggested Vladimir Putin's rhetoric was overblown during a meeting in Kyiv. 'We had a discussion recently in the Oval [Office] where... they were talking about the primacy of the Russian military and how they were pretty good,' he told British historian Niall Ferguson. 'And I said to the people in the room: "We'd kick their a*s." 'I mean by that, don't take...

Driving a taxi in the Russian capital was never very lucrative for Said, a Tajik migrant living in the Moscow region, but it paid the bills. Now, he says, the price of gasoline has jumped by more than 30 percent in recent weeks -- from 45 rubles a liter to 60. All told, his daily take-home pay is just three-quarters of what he used to net, he says; he can barely cover living expenses. "You work, and you pay your rent, and you pay for your gas -- those are all your expenses," he told RFE/RL, asking only to be...

Official Moscow spoke about the prospects of trilateral talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, APA's Moscow bureau reports. "There is no progress towards holding a trilateral summit." "So far, there is no progress. The summit on Ukraine should be well prepared, but Kyiv and Europe are not ready to see this preparation," the Russian president's press secretary emphasized.

Russia is losing the war, said US President Donald Trump's special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, APA reports. "Trump asked me if Russia was winning the war. I told him Russia was not winning the war. If Putin had won, he would have been in Kiev. He would have been in Odessa, on the western bank of the Dnieper, and he would have changed the Ukrainian government. Russia is losing the war," Kellogg claimed. The US President's special representative also spoke about nuclear weapons. "This is not the Russia I knew during the Cold War, the Soviet Union. This is...

Polling shows Zelensky trailing rivals, mired in corruption woes, and stalling peace talks—his halo fading fast at home and abroad. You won’t hear this from the mainstream press, but you’ll hear it here first: Volodymyr Zelensky, the Western media’s darling, is in real political trouble at home. I just commissioned credible polling from inside Ukraine. The war-weary population there wants a new president and a negotiated peace. This reality makes Zelensky less a heroic statesman and more a vulnerable incumbent with a perverse incentive: to keep slow-walking peace, continue milking Western taxpayers, and delay the elections he’s almost certain to...