Free Republic

For years, Russian officials have used trolling to sow division and confusion abroad. Give them a taste of their own medicine. ...It can and will make you feel better. And yes, you can do it in English. These people monitor their replies, on Twitter especially. It’s how their bureaucracy works, they are interested in engagement... 1. Use superstitions like: “Hellfire is getting closer” [Ад близок] “You are cursed. And you know it.” [Ребята, вы давно прокляты. И вы это отлично знаете]... Make sure to impart a sense of doom. They feel it already. It’s why many are hysterical online. 2....

To anyone standing on a hilltop in Lysychansk, it is clear why this city that is soon to be the focal point of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s east seems defendable: it’s on high ground. Across the sprawling plains of Ukraine’s Donbas region, which is home to Lysychansk, elevation is a rarity, leaving the city’s Ukrainian defenders in an advantageous position. But it will be impossible to defend Lysychansk, whose pre-war population was around 100,000 people, without a way to get in the necessary supplies: ammunition for Ukrainian tanks and artillery, food and equipment for the thousands of troops garrisoned there.

Ukraine said Wednesday it would not demine waters around the Black Sea port of Odessa to allow for grain to be exported, citing the threat of Russian attacks on the city. “The moment we clear access to the port of Odessa, the Russian fleet will be there,” spokesman for the regional administration Sergiy Bratchuk said in a video statement on social media. He said that Russia “dreams of parachuting troops” into the city and that Moscow’s army “wants to attack” Odessa. The Turkish and Russian foreign ministers were meeting in Ankara Wednesday to discuss the creation of security corridor to...

Responding to Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, Western countries have imposed a slew of anti-Russian sanctions aiming to "isolate" Russia from the global economy. Commenting on the Western sanctions targeting Russia's economy, President Vladimir Putin stated that it is impossible to isolate such a big country. "For a country like Russia, it is impossible to be surrounded by a fence from the outside," he said. "And we ourselves are not going to erect such a fence around [our own country]". The Russian president also explained that the country is never going to have a closed economy. According to him, Moscow...