Free Republic

Footage showed thousands of Russian conscripts shouting at Major-General Kirill Kulakov at a training base in Kazan, a city in Russia, with some yelling 'let's go home'. Russian marines have said their 'incompetent' generals are treating them as 'cannon fodder' after their unit suffered devastating losses, with 300 men reportedly killed or wounded in four days of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine. Marines from Russia's 155th Naval Infantry Brigade wrote a scathing letter to their regional governor, claiming they had lost 300 servicemen in a four-day massacre in Pavlivka thanks to the catastrophic planning of Generals Rustam Muradov and Zurab...

Welcome to my newest update on Putin’s War in Ukraine. We are now 36 weeks — 254 days — since Russia launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine. My last update can be found at Putin’s War, Week 35. The Lull Before the Next Storm. There has been some action, but the crappy weather has slowed things down. Also, both sides are somewhat tired after a punishing summer’s campaigning. I look at this period as the break when the fighters have returned to their corners. Two significant items have been covered outside this update. First, the Pentagon is beefing up the...

Vladimir Putin is set to deploy special units to shoot his own military if they retreat from the war in Ukraine, UK government defence chiefs said on Friday. Britain's Ministry of Defence said that Russia will deploy so-called 'blocking units' which 'threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives'. With low morale at a peak among Russian soldiers, Putin is turning on his own men. 'Due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying 'barrier troops' or 'blocking units',' the Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Friday. 'These...

Putin sacks ANOTHER top general, Western officials say Russia is in advanced stages of planning retreat from Kherson, officials believe 'Reinforcements' are actually conscripts designed to cover the retreat, they said If retreat happens, Russia will try to play it off as 'evacuation' to protect civilians Meanwhile Russian General Lapin has 'probably' been sacked, officials added Russia is planning to retreat from the city of Kherson and play it off as a civilian evacuation, Western officials said today. Putin's troops are in the advanced stages of preparing for the retreat, the officials said, having moved conscripts into the city to...

A small number of U.S. military forces inside Ukraine have recently begun doing onsite inspections to ensure that Ukrainian troops are properly accounting for the Western-provided weapons they receive, a senior U.S. defense official told Pentagon reporters Monday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a military update, would not say where the inspections are taking place or how close to the battlefronts the U.S. troops are getting. The official said U.S. personnel can’t do inspections “close to the front lines,” but said they are going where security conditions allow.

Massive explosions have been seen hitting a key naval port in annexed Crimea that Russia claim was targeted in a major Ukrainian drone assault. Russian Black Sea warships were reportedly having to fight the attack off in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014. According to Ukrainian sources, several of the Russian ships from the fleet were blown up. Local media are reporting that rescuers this morning are still attempting to put out a fire on one of the ships. Residents claimed that the huge explosions 'shook' their homes and windows while black smoke...

Russian officers and collaborators are evacuating Kherson under the guise of a 'civilian evacuation' as the Ukrainian army approaches, one resident has said. The Ukrainian army has set its sights on liberating Kherson, the second largest city in Ukraine, from Vladimir Putin's forces. Russia has declared a civilian evacuation to funnel residents into Russia, but civilians living there say they aren't the ones being evacuated. 'Mostly it's families of Russian officers, families of Russian officials and collaborators who helped to organise the referendum,' said a local Kherson-based activist and organiser, speaking to Sky News on condition of anonymity. Roughly a...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there is no need for more massive strikes on Ukraine, days after the heaviest bombardment of the country since the war began. He said most designated targets of the strikes had been hit, adding that it was not his aim to destroy Ukraine. Moscow's goal of mobilising 300,000 men would be met within two weeks, he said. Mr Putin's words come as Russian forces seem stalled and Ukraine advances, almost eight months since the invasion. Speaking to journalists after a summit with regional leaders in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, the Russian leader said that the...

The Ukrainians’ bodies lay side-by-side on the grass, the earth beside them splayed open by a crater. Dragged to the spot by Russian mercenaries, the victims’ arms pointed to where they had died. “Let’s plant a grenade on them,” a voice says in husky Russian, in what appears to be a plan to booby-trap the bodies. “There is no need for a grenade, we will just bash them in,” another says of the Ukrainian soldiers who will come to collect the bodies. The mercenaries then realize they have run out of ammunition. (snip) Wagner’s struggles in Ukraine have set in...