Free Republic

For those trying to keep up with the fast-moving events in Ukraine, it may be helpful to consider some lessons of history. Mistakes made in the past week, added onto developments covering the last two or three centuries, have left the United States and its European allies -- in particular the largest of them, Germany -- unable to prevent President Vladimir Putin's Russia from absorbing an as yet undetermined part of a theoretically independent Ukraine. One lesson of history is contained in the aphorism, "If you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna." It's attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, who in...

"One small thing to be thankful for is that DJT is not in the White House as the Ukraine crisis unfolds. He'd side with Russia," tweeted Francis Fukuyama, author of "The End of History and the Last Man." The headline on Eugene Robinson's Washington Post column reads, "With Biden standing firm, Putin must wonder: Where's Trump when I need him?" You could find similar sentiment from foreign-policy experts strewn across social media. Surely, even former President Donald Trump's most passionate antagonists must be slightly curious as to why Russian President Vladimir Putin, the real villain of this tale, didn't move...

When Russia's Vladimir Putin demanded that the U.S. rule out Ukraine as a future member of the NATO alliance, the U.S. archly replied: NATO has an open-door policy. Any nation, including Ukraine, may apply for membership and be admitted. We're not changing that. In the Bucharest declaration of 2008, NATO had put Ukraine and Georgia, ever farther east in the Caucasus, on a path to membership in NATO and coverage under Article 5 of the treaty, which declares that an attack on any one member is an attack on all. Unable to get a satisfactory answer to his demand, Putin...

In February 2014, Russian kingpin Vladimir Putin invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula, which had been under Ukrainian jurisdiction. The timing was no accident, coming as it did only a handful of months after then-President Barack Obama reneged upon his own chemical weapons "red line" for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, effectively leaving the resolution of the then-nascent chemical weapons crisis in Putin's hands. Putin, like a shark smelling blood, sensed weakness and acted accordingly. To this day, Crimea remains under de facto Russian control. It is not exactly a mystery what motivates Putin's actions on the geopolitical chessboard. He...

Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine under several pretexts reminds me of Adolf Hitler's rationale for invading and annexing Sudetenland in 1938 and his invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland a year later. Then, as now, the excuse was that German-speaking people (then) and Russian-speaking people (now) wanted to be part of Germany (then) and Mother Russia (now). In both cases the excuses for invasion, occupation and murder were just that - excuses. Some commentators say there has been nothing like Putin's invasion of Ukraine since World War II. There are dwindling numbers of people alive...

The escalating Russian aggression in Ukraine should serve as a vivid reminder of the global threat posed not only by Moscow but also by any countries that seek to align themselves with Putin for the sake of undermining Western interests and challenging the existing world order. While the United States, Britain, and the European Union develop their strategies for averting war while also pressuring Russia to withdraw forces from Donetsk and Luhansk, they must not lose sight of the fact that other Russian forces recently coordinated with Iran and China for naval exercises in the Indian Ocean, thus signaling the...

Putin has sent has 100K+ troops into the fake separatist regions of Ukraine, and that’s bad. But the morphing of Canada into a fascist state before our eyes is exponentially worse. A garbage elite on our border – with the disgraceful support of 65% of American Democrats – has declared war upon the working class, outraged that mere peasants are refusing to submit to their betters. Due process, free speech, not beating the brains out of old ladies with walkers – these basics have gone by the wayside and our senile president, with his coterie of aspiring Castros – though...

When NBC's Lester Holt asked resident Joe Biden what might prompt him to send U.S. troops to rescue Americans fleeing Ukraine, Biden replied: "There's not. That's a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another." It's not like we're dealing with a terrorist organization. We're dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. ... Things could go crazy quickly." Biden was saying Americans are not going to fight Russians in Ukraine, even to protect or extract imperiled U.S. troops, diplomats or citizens. Speaking last week on the Senate floor, Sen. Ted Cruz echoed Biden: "I...

A map is the most effective tool for visualizing and explaining the Ukraine-Russia crisis because its visual nature allows for viewers to understand the conflict through the same eyes of the parties involved. Ukraine has always been one of Russia's most vital strategic and tactical neighbors. During the winter months, Russia requires unfettered access to the Black Sea from a variety of locations, and Ukraine is in the ideal position to provide such access. Through nonfrozen waterways, it serves as a year-round entryway to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean for Russia. In this regard, it is clear that...

Let me preface this with the fact that I don’t know what I’m going to speculate about here to be true, but it’s the only thing that makes sense of the entire situation. Of course, if Russia invades Ukraine, either by the time this is published Tuesday or anytime thereafter, this could look pretty stupid. Still, I’m willing to risk it because nothing else makes any sense, when you consider the entire situation. What if the idea of Russia invading Ukraine is a hoax? What if it’s just Russia doing what Russia loves doing – saber rattling – and nothing...

Washington -- Well, Moscow is in the news again. Russian President Vladimir Putin is irritated by the citizens of disobedient Ukraine. He is discarding his sporty demeanor for a more hostile style. He has not been seen for a long time in his spotless all-white martial arts uniform and is now all business, wearing a nicely tailored business suit. That should cause anxiety for his neighbors. Frankly, I preferred him in his martial-arts whites. Back in the days of the Cold War, I was often asked -- I being a renowned Cold War hawk -- if I had ever visited...

About that clash between a British destroyer and Russian warplanes and warships in the Black Sea last week: there are conflicting versions. The Kremlin version is the more dramatic. HMS Defender, says Moscow, entered the Black Sea, made port in Odessa, Ukraine, and then sailed for Batumi on the coast of Georgia. However, the British warship traversed Russia's territorial waters at the tip of the Crimean peninsula, near Sevastopol, Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea. The destroyer, say the Russians, had to be diverted by shellfire from a patrol boat and bombs dropped in its path by Sukhoi...

The details of the closed meeting of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with bloggers became known. According to blogger Martin Brest, the Ukrainian authorities are preparing for a quick power sweep of the Donbass . Brest wrote about this on his Facebook page on Sunday, March 10th.

Nobody tell Vladimir Putin, but President Trump just broke with the Obama administration and will sell lethal arms to the Ukrainian government, which is engaged in conflict with pro-Russian separatists.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Ukraine has summoned the Polish ambassador in Kiev after Poland denied entry to a Ukrainian official in an escalation of a diplomatic spat over the two neighbours’ troubled past. Poland’s decision to refused entry on Saturday to the head of Ukraine’s commemoration commission, Svyatoslav Sheremet, was in response to a ban imposed earlier this year by Kiev on the exhumation of Poles killed in Ukraine during World War Two, Polish state news agency PAP reported. “The Ukrainian side has complained that Mr Sheremet was not allowed into Poland,” Poland’s ambassador to Kiev Jan Pieklo told PAP after...

Map of the planned Turkish Stream (Wikipedia). Russia’s Gazprom has begun constructing the first stage of the Turkish Stream pipeline that will run gas from southern Russia across the Black Sea to Turkey, Reuters reported on Sunday.Switzerland’s Allseas Group S.A has begun laying pipes on the Russian shore of Black Sea. The pipeline will when completed by the end of 2019 allow the state-owned Gazprom company to send gas direct to southern Europe through the Turkish Stream while bypassing Ukraine.The Turkish Stream intergovernmental agreement was signed in October 2016 after having been halted for almost a year following the shootdown...

The United States will not lift sanctions on Russia until President Vladimir Putin hands Crimea back to Ukraine, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said late Sunday. During a phone call with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Tillerson said the sanctions—which have crippled Russia’s economy and pushed down the value of the ruble—will “ remain in place until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine.” He also said that Moscow must honor the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine that was outlined in the Minsk agreements, according to a State Department official.

Former Obama official and Hillary Clinton campaign advisor Dr. Evelyn Farkas gave an interview to Vox published February 16, two weeks before her now notorious March 2 Morning Joe appearance, that contradicts her denials this week that she only knew from the media about alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

A former Russian member of parliament who defected to Ukraine and began sharply criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin was gunned down Thursday in downtown Kiev in an apparent contract killing. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the murder of Denis Voronenkov, a former member of Russia’s Communist Party who fled to Kiev in October 2016, an “act of state terrorism by Russia.” A suspected assailant was arrested after Voronenkov was shot twice in the head, dying on the spot. The suspect’s identity or other details were not immediately made public. In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman denied Russian involvement in the killing.

On Tuesday, March 7th, Russia’s top parliamentarian dealing with the Ukrainian refugee influx into Russia — dealing, that is, with the people who have fled Ukraine as a result of U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2014 coup overthrowing Ukraine’s democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych — presented the first-ever comprehensive number of asylum-applicants from Ukraine who have received asylum there after that February 2014 coup. The Russian government had never before publicly provided a number, but does have an established system of processing refugees, including assignment of official refugee status, which «allows the recipient various social benefits, including unemployment compensation» and so...