Free Republic

If Republicans continue to block U.S. military aid to Ukraine, the White House could turn to an ally to provide Kyiv with ATACM missiles capable of striking Russian-held Crimea.MUNICH — After months of requests from Ukrainian officials, the Biden administration is working toward providing Ukraine with powerful new long-range ballistic missiles, according to two U.S. officials.Late last year, the U.S. began to supply Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, but so far it has provided only the older medium-range ATACMS. Now, the U.S. is leaning toward sending the longer-range version of the missile, the officials said, which...

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) wanted to talk about Ukraine and the need to stand up to Russian aggression before taking any questions from The Hill during a Wednesday interview. The veteran Senate GOP leader, a day removed from what he saw as a significant victory in the Senate’s passage of aid to Ukraine and Israel, said showing resolve to deter foreign aggression is the “single biggest issue we’ve had in a long, long time.” The Senate bill, approved Tuesday in a 70-29 vote, faces an uncertain future in the House after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) issued a scathing...

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....

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner has made information concerning a “serious national security threat” available to all members of Congress to review, the committee said on Wednesday. While Turner and the White House remained vague on what the threat entailed, two sources and a US official tell CNN the threat is related to Russia. Multiple sources familiar with the intelligence characterized it as “very sensitive.” One of the sources who has seen the intelligence confirmed that “it is, in fact, a highly concerning and destabilizing” Russian capability “that we were recently made aware of.”

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...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Most likely Republican Iowa caucusgoers say they’ll vote for former President Donald Trump in the general election if he’s the GOP nominee, regardless of the candidate they’re supporting on caucus night. That is, except supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, with nearly half of them — 43% — saying they’d vote for Democratic President Joe Biden over Trump. These new findings from the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of Iowa further illustrate the degree to which Haley is bringing in support from independents, Democrats and Republicans who have been uneasy with Trump’s takeover of...

conflict with Russia if the Kremlin succeeds in its war against Ukraine. Biden's statement follows Russia's massive aerial attack across Ukraine on Friday. Kyiv air force officials said that about 110 missiles struck Ukraine, hitting hospitals, residential buildings and a shopping center. At least 31 citizens were killed in the attack and another 120 wounded, according to Ukraine officials cited by Reuters.

Loud explosions were heard in early Tuesday hours over the Crimean town of Feodosia on the Black Sea coast, Russian news outlets on the Telegram messaging service reported. Footage posted on several Russian news outlets on Telegram showed powerful explosions and fires over a port area.

President Joe Biden has told his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that the United States will provide a small number of long-range missiles to aid the war with Russia, three U.S. officials and a congressional official familiar with the discussions told NBC News on Friday. The officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly, did not say when the missiles would be delivered or when a public announcement would be made. For months, Ukraine has asked for the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, which would give Kyiv the ability to strike targets from as far away as about 180...

Commercial vessels have resumed using Ukraine’s main port of Odesa without asking permission from Russia for the first time since the war began—showing just how much the balance of power has changed in the Black Sea. By imposing an asymmetrical war that relies on domestically produced naval drones and missiles, and that targets Russians ships in their own home bases, Ukraine has eroded much of Russia’s vaunted naval superiority... Outnumbered 12 to one by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Ukrainian Navy wasn’t considered a meaningful force when Russia invaded... Ukraine quickly scuttled its flagship frigate... so that the vessel...

Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that House Republicans who wanted to move forward with the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden were acting prematurely. Hutchinson said, “I think it’s premature. I know that Speaker mccarthy is in a difficult position, and i support him as speaker. i want him to navigate through this. I know he’s trying to do his best there. There has to be an investigation. Whenever you have the questions about the president’s own financing, whether he had a benefit from his son’s dealings, that is something...

Moscow media mouthpieces often refer to history books when they talk about Russia's invasion of Ukraine but one Kremlin propagandist decided to turn to the Bible. During a monologue on Solovyov Live, host Roman Golovanov said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is among those who have used the Old Testament story of David versus Goliath as a parallel for the war in Ukraine, in which Russia is portrayed as the larger adversary. However, Golovanov said that the perennial tale of the underdog triumphing should be flipped around and that Russia "was in fact the David" because "at least 50 countries are...

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) should lose her security clearance after she showed support for an Air National Guardsman that leaked classified military documents. “Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime,” Greene tweeted. “Ask yourself who is the real enemy?” she continued. “A young low level national guardsmen? Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?”

WAGNER Group warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin fears Ukraine has built up a 200,000-strong reserve of troops ready to launch a huge counter-blitz. The Russian billionaire has warned his feared mercenary army to "prepare for the worst". -snip- Prigozhin, who heads the group, said they have used reconnaissance satellites to spot the reserves. In a post published by Concord group on Telegram, he said: "There is a joke that ends with the phrase: 'So big, but you believe in fairy tales'. "Therefore, the political scientist Ishchenko and other very positive kind guys may turn out to be the best military analysts in...

Defeating Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine is the "best deterrence" for keeping Chinese President Xi Jinping out of Taiwan, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, who traveled to Taiwan this weekend, said in an interview that aired Sunday. "I've talked to the prime ministers and the presidents of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and what's happening in Ukraine will determine what happens in Taiwan and the Pacific," the Texas Republican said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I believe the best deterrence to Chairman Xi is a failure for Putin in Ukraine." Weapons for Taiwan are also necessary to...

Saudi Arabia, whose relationship with the United States has taken a nosedive during President Joe Biden’s tenure, announced on Sunday it would lead the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), including Russia, to cut over one million barrels of output a day starting next month, which could cause higher U.S. inflation. Saudi Arabia also stated it would cut production by another 500,000 barrels a day starting in May. Oil prices soared 7.5% at the week’s open after the Saudi announcement. Kevin Book, managing director of Clearview Energy Partners, told CBS News the cuts could cause U.S....

Ukraine is able to export electricity for the first time in six months as its energy infrastructure recovers from months of repeated Russian attacks. Russia began its lengthy and deliberate assault on Ukraine's energy infrastructure last October. It led to power cuts and scheduled blackouts, leaving towns and cities in darkness during winter. Ukraine was forced to stop electricity exports - but will now be able to sell its excess power again. Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko signed an executive order authorising the exports, although local customers remain the priority. He said the system had been producing extra capacity for almost...

Russia lost elections to three United Nations bodies this week, a sign that opposition to its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago remains strong. The votes in the 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council follow approval of six non-binding resolutions against Russia by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly. The latest — on Feb. 23, the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion — called for Moscow to end hostilities and withdraw its forces and was adopted by a vote of 141-7 with 32 abstentions. In the ECOSOC votes, Russia was overwhelmingly defeated by Romania for a seat on...

Andrey Sadovoy, the mayor of Lviv in western Ukraine, announced on April 6 that the two Ukrainian Orthodox Churches in his city were no more -- the Church of St. Vladimir was demolished by backhoe and the Church of St. George was made part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, backed by the Zelensky government, reported RT, the website Orthodox Christianity, and The Kyiv Independent. The Church of St. Vladimir was under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, as was the Church of St. George. Under President Volodomyr Zelensky, some churches formerly attached to the Russian Orthodox Church have,...

From the time NATO was founded in 1949 to the recent accession of Finland, the United States has remained the foremost military power in NATO. But a question that is not often asked is why? Why would a power like the USA continue to expand promises of defence to an ever larger group of nations that cannot hope to offer a similar level of capability or assistance in return. The acceptance of new allies into NATO or bilateral and multilateral security treaties has not always been without domestic and international opposition. And so today I wanted to follow up on...