Free Republic

Warthog Defense members are sharing stories, insider tips, news from the front lines, and unique slices of military life including the tough stuff of war.

Russia is pulling all of its fighter jets out of Crimea in an apparent response to recent explosions at Russian military outposts in the region, a secret NATO report seen by Insider said. Russia has already moved ten aircraft — six Su-35S and four MiG-31BM jets — out of Crimea and into Russia and is set to continue until all fighter jets are removed, the report, which was dated August 22, said. The first ten jets were moved from Belbek airfield in Crimea to Kushchevskaya and Marinovka, two regions in Russia, the report said. "Russia has dispersed 10x fighter aircraft...

Ankara supports Ukraine's territorial integrity and rejects the illegal annexation of Crimea, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. "The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law," Erdogan said in a video message to the Second Crimea Platform Summit. The Crimea Platform is an international coordination mechanism of Ukraine to draw more global attention to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Erdogan said Ankara will continue to support the Crimean Platform that was established to resolve the Crimean issue through peaceful means. "Türkiye does not recognize...

Nearly six months into the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin still refers to its invasion as a “special military operation” while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy at home. But a series of Ukrainian attacks in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that President Vladimir V. Putin illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is puncturing that narrative. And as Ukrainian attacks mount in the strategically and symbolically important territory, the damage is beginning to put domestic political pressure on the Kremlin, with criticism and debate about the war increasingly being unleashed on social media and underscoring that even what the...

RUSSIAN officials shut down a key bridge to Crimea and fled over fears of an attack, according to Ukrainian reports. The Crimean Bridge, which is also known as the Kerch Bridge, links the Russian mainland to the peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Some Russians dubbed the road and rail structure "Putin's bridge" as it was designed to link Crimea to Russia’s transport network. Tensions are running high in Crimea which has been the target of a number of attacks in recent weeks with air and military bases targeted. Ukrainian TV channel 24 claimed yesterday (August 16) that Moscow had...

VLADIMIR Putin has been forced to pull back his jets and helicopters from Crimea after a massive blitz on Russian military bases - as humiliating video shows mutinying soldiers refusing to fight. Ukrainian intelligence sources claim some 24 fighter jets and bombers along with 14 choppers retreated deeper into the Black Sea peninsula - or back to mainland Russia. The dramatic withdrawal follows the heavy bombardment of Putin's military bases on the Russian-occupied peninsula over the last nine days from Ukrainian special forces. A devastating series of explosions at an air base last week destroyed 20 jets and caused £1bn...

Plumes of black smoke were seen on Tuesday at a Russian military airbase near the settlement of Gvardeyskoye in the centre of Russian-controlled Crimea, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported. Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s Defence Ministry separately blamed a series of explosions around Dzhankoi in northern Crimea on “sabotage”, state-owned news agency RIA reported. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in a recent series of blasts in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Explosions shook an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea on Tuesday, the latest such incident in a region used by Moscow as a staging post for its war in Ukraine.

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

Ukraine's special forces were responsible for a series of deadly explosions which destroyed parts of a crucial Russian airbase in Crimea yesterday, killing one and injuring 14 according to a Ukrainian government official. Up to ten Russian aircraft were destroyed in the attack, the Ukrainian air force said, which an anonymous official told the Washington Post had been carried out by special forces – despite claims yesterday that long-range missiles could have been used. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile vowed to 'liberate' the peninsula previously part of Ukraine but annexed by Russia in 2014 despite international condemnation. Zelensky did not...