Free Republic

They will inspect structural integrity of bridge and look for more evidence Russia blamed the explosion on a truck bomb and is trying to identify its driver But a mysterious wave underneath the bridge was seen moments before blast The clip aroused suspicions that the bridge was targeted by a Ukrainian craft Russian frogmen are now examining the damage left by a powerful blast on the Kerch bridge to Crimea that is a prestigious symbol of Moscow's annexation of the peninsula and a key supply route to forces battling in southern Ukraine. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said the...

Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin has a very simple solution to ending Putin’s war in Ukraine. When asked about an off-ramp for Putin, she replied, “The way out of the conflict is for Russia to leave Ukraine. That’s the way out of the conflict.” What more do you need to know?

The presidential press office of Ukraine accused global media outlets of “nuclear hysteria” on Thursday for sharing remarks made by President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked the world for “preemptive strikes” on Russia to avoid nuclear war. Zelensky made the remarks during a question and answer session with the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, on Thursday, asserting that NATO had a responsibility to “make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons.

It started with Gazprom revealing that the Line B string of NS2 is intact; not only it escaped Pipeline Terror but may “potentially” be used to pump gas to Germany. That confirms once again that NS2 is an engineering marvel. In fact the whole system: the pipes are so strong they were not broken, but merely punctured. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak followed up, with a caveat: restoration of the whole system, including NS, is possible, and “requires time and appropriate funds”. But first, in Russia’s order of priorities, the perpetrators must be conclusively identified. Sources in Moscow confirmed...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/8f635d68-4cf9-445f-90fc-0811cef10c26 Late on Sunday night, Ilya, a 38-year-old Muscovite, hobbled to his front door on crutches to find two officials handing him a draft notice. Ilya pointed to the cast on the leg he broke falling down the stairs...

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...

German politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann spoke about Russia in an interview with RND about suspected attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines. Two senior German lawmakers have pointed the finger at Russia over suspected sabotage of Nord Stream. The leaking Russia-to-Europe pipelines are spewing natural-gas into the Baltic Sea. The Kremlin said claims about Russia's involvement were "predictably stupid and absurd." Two senior German lawmakers have pointed the finger at Russia over suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream natural-gas pipelines. Roderich Kiesewetter, a government spokesman for crisis prevention, said in a tweet late Tuesday that the attack was an act of sabotage...

Acostly troop mobilization, plunging energy prices and a new round of Western sanctions threaten to bear down on Russia’s already embattled economy and undermine the financial underpinnings of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Russia's Mobilization and Plunging Oil Prices Weaken Putin's Economic Hand Russia's Mobilization and Plunging Oil Prices Weaken Putin's Economic Hand © ALEXEY MALGAVKO/REUTERS The economic storm clouds come as Mr. Putin orders more financial resources directed at the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin’s decision to call up more than 300,000 soldiers will require new funds to equip, train and pay the new reinforcements, analysts said. It...

According to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, Moscow can use the bomb when conventional weapons threaten "the very existence of the state"--a principle that could be applied to dangers faced by occupied territory incorporated via referendums..."The supply of modern weapons is just a business for Western countries based on hatred of us. No more. Overseas and European demagogues are not going to die in a nuclear apocalypse. Therefore, they will swallow the use of any weapon in the current conflict," Medvedev predicted.

Russian men drafted by President Vladimir Putin's recent mobilization announcement are using a Ukrainian hotline to ask how they can give themselves up. The "I Want to Live" hotline was announced by Ukraine's MOD on September 19, two days before Russian President Putin announced the mobilization to the battlefield. Yusov said the hotline has received "a lot of calls" from recently drafted Russians, and even some who haven't yet been mobilized: "They're calling and asking 'What should I do if I get called up? What do I have to do, what's the right way to surrender?'" Putin's announcement sparked protests...

"Soldiers of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ambushed the enemy in a forest massif in Donetsk region." The video shows Ukrainian soldiers running through the forest during a counteroffensive in a separatist region of Ukraine that has been a key battleground for both sides since Russia's invasion on February 24. Over the weekend, nearly 370 civilians were evacuated from the area, according to the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. "After the ambush, the operators of the SSO of Ukraine began to perform other tasks without losses," the General Staff of the...

Ukraine’s recent successes have left some opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war emboldened to speak out against the Kremlin. One of Russia's most celebrated pop stars, Alla Pugachova has asked to be declared a foreign agent, in solidarity with her exiled husband Maxim Galkin. He was designated a foreign agent less than a week ago. In an online post, she said Putin's war in Ukraine was "killing soldiers for illusory aims", and turning Russia into a "global pariah". Is there a shift in Russian public opinion, given Moscow's recent military set-backs in its war on Ukraine?

Tuesday is the final day of voting in a series of referendums on joining Russia. The votes, widely seen as rigged and illegitimate, are likely to pave the way for Russia to announce it has annexed more of Ukraine by the end of the week, analysts say. The votes have been taking place in two pro-Russian, self-proclaimed “republics” in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and southern occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. There have been multiple reports of votes being staged and coercion and aggression being used to force people living in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to vote...

An ally of President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday outlined the scenario of a nuclear strike on Ukraine, saying that the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would be too scared of a 'nuclear apocalypse' to directly enter the conflict in response. Dmitry Medvedev, a former president who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said Russia had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons if it is pushed beyond its limits and that this is "certainly not a bluff". Putin last week ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine,...

It would be easy to underestimate Valeriy Zaluzhny. When not in uniform, the general prefers T-shirts and shorts that match his easygoing sense of humor. When he first heard from aides to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late July 2021 that he was being tapped to lead the country’s armed forces, his stunned response was, “What do you mean?” As it sank in that he would become commander in chief, he tells TIME in his first interview since the Russian invasion began, he felt as if he had been punched “not just below the belt but straight into a knockout.”...

Russian troops have been deployed near the border with Georgia today even as the Kremlin tries to stamp out rumours that Putin is about to introduce martial law and ban people from leaving in order to avoid being conscripted into the army. Footage geolocated to the small town of Chmi, on the main highway from Russia into Georgia's South Ossetia region, shows at least six soldiers sitting on top of an armoured vehicle passing a queue of cars in the direction of the crossing. Troops arrived to set up a checkpoint, sources told the Russia's RBC network, with the FSB...

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...

You see, this is why I prefer Catholicism. All we need is confession. Russia’s establishment has grown desperate enough in Ukraine to reach for the martyrdom argument. Patriarch Kirill, a Vladimir Putin crony, declared that Russian men who die for “Holy Russia” by participating in its genocide in Ukraine will have their sins “washed away”: (snip) If that sounds positively medieval, it is, literally. It’s the same indulgence granted during the Crusades. This is the kind of martyrdom teachings one no longer finds in Christianity but still find in radical forms of Islam and extremist political ideologies. In those ideologies,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Monday in Moscow, Belarus state media reported. Russia and Belarus are close allies, with Russia having used bases in Belarus as a staging post for its troops, aircraft and equipment in the invasion of Ukraine.

Panicked Russian soldiers are abandoning their tanks, weapons and even clothes as they "literally run from their positions" in the face of a shock Ukrainian offensive, soldiers have told The Telegraph. A Ukrainian intelligence unit on the front line said the Russian chain of command was broken and soldiers were fleeing without putting up a fight, many of them changing into civilian clothes to avoid detection. A drone operator returning from the front line on Sunday also told The Telegraph that the speed of the offensive had even taken their own army by surprise, with troops struggling to recover the...