Free Republic

Finally!! Russia displays thousands of NATO weapons and combat vehicles.

Things continue to feel like a calm before the approaching storm. There is not too much overt activity in the battle space, but various rumblings of a large looming escalation continue to trickle through the grape vine.In a recent article I had mentioned how the Western press and elite commentariat for the first time began using the taboo ‘C’ word, i.e. “Collapse”, for Ukraine. Now this has opened up the floodgates, causing more and more worried publications to begin turning off their previous holding-the-line narrative filter and actually start describing the Ukrainian situation with truthful urgency. ... Read my lips,...

Jason Miller, senior adviser to Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, told Newsmax on Friday that the Biden administration's endorsement of Ukraine's joining NATO is an "act of war" and more "dangerous" than President Joe Biden's southern border policies. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday in Brussels that Ukraine "will become a member of NATO." "This is really dangerous," Miller told "Eric Bolling The Balance." "When you look at this move, when you look at Blinken saying they're gonna bring Ukraine into NATO, this is an act of war. This is an act of war not with Russia, who's already...

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said this week that there will be no “compromises” with Russia despite fears that Moscow will seek to capture more territory after the failures of the counteroffensive last year. Andriy Yermak, one of the most powerful figures in the Zelensky government, told POLITICO that Kyiv will not accept any terms in which the lines of conflict are frozen and that Ukraine will not accept any agreement that infringes upon its borders.

Big trouble may be brewing in little Moldova, which is starting to look like a staging area for the European Union to offset an emerging Russian victory in Ukraine. Whether such a plan, if attempted, would succeed is not clear. But Moldova is not the most stable country in the world with the nation split between pro-EU and pro-Russian elements. US troops are now in Moldova with Romanians, ostensibly for a military exercise called JCET 2024 (Joint Command Exchange Training). The exercise started on April 1 and will continue until April 19. According to a Moldovan Ministry of Defense statement,...

Economist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs weighs in on the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war during an interview with The Hill's "Rising." JEFFREY SACHS: You can't make sense of this, it's a zoo. If I am just hearing now, the plan is to illegally seize Russian assets, well kiss goodbye to America's role in the international monetary system. There are limits to what you can do, but I don't think our members of Congress really understand much about this. ... This is purely money down the drain. If they want to rip up another $61 billion, which is not...

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev launched a scathing verbal attack against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Thursday, calling for a bounty on any Western troops that enter Ukraine. "There can only be one rule for these overseas lice, who, unlike the unfortunate Ukrainians, were not forced to go to war: no prisoners taken!" Medvedev, who's now the deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, wrote in a post on X. "And for each NATO fighter killed, blown-up, or burned, there must be a maximum reward," he added." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> This Medvedev comment sounds like a comment from a demented, drugged, serial...

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said that it’s irresponsible for Sec. of State Antony Blinken to declare that Ukraine will become a NATO member. “This is completely irresponsible,” Vance posted on X. “Ukraine should not join NATO, and to invite them during a war is to invite our nation into war.” This is completely irresponsible. Ukraine should not join NATO, and to invite them during a war is to invite our nation into war. Do you want American ground troops in Ukraine? If not, we must push back against the idea that Ukraine should join NATO. https://t.co/FkpPFZxbyP — J.D. Vance...

A series of scandals has blighted Denmark's Armed Forces at a time when the Scandinavian country and member of the NATO alliance is building up its defenses, chiefly as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The events have so far led to the dismissal this week of Denmark’s top military chief, Gen. Flemming Lentfer, who failed to inform the defense minister about an incident on the frigate HDMS Iver Huitfeldt last month while deployed to the Red Sea, where it was part of a U.S.-led operation to defend commercial shipping against Houthi militants. On Thursday, a technical error onboard...

Russia and NATO are now in "direct confrontation", the Kremlin said as the U.S.-led alliance marked its 75th anniversary on Thursday. NATO's successive waves of eastern enlargement are a fixation of President Vladimir Putin, who went to war in Ukraine two years ago with the stated aim of preventing the alliance from coming closer to Russia's borders. Instead, the war has galvanised NATO, which has expanded again with the entry of Finland and Sweden. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "In fact, relations have now slipped to the level of direct confrontation." NATO was "already involved in the conflict surrounding...

Lord Cameron has ruled out Western troops being sent into Ukraine to avoid giving Russian President Vladimir Putin "a target". The foreign secretary acknowledged that the "war will be lost if the allies don't step up" on the BBC's Ukrainecast podcast. But asked whether Western nations should send troops into Ukraine, Lord Cameron replied "no". He added Nato must be in the "best possible shape" by the US elections. Lord Cameron was speaking at a two-day North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) summit of 32 foreign ministers in Brussels. Nato boss Jens Stoltenberg has floated plans for a 100 billion euro...

NATO is going to “build a bridge” towards Ukraine becoming a member state of the defensive alliance, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on the organisation’s 75th birthday. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member states met in Brussels at the alliance’s headquarters on Thursday to toast the 75th anniversary of its founding, among them U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken who like others used the occasion to discuss renewed Russian aggression and the potential place of Ukraine among its members. He emphasised the view, already articulated multiple times by NATO leaders in recent years, that “Ukraine will become a member...

NATO is debating a plan to provide more predictable military support to Ukraine in coming years as better armed Russian troops assert control on the battlefield, the organization’s top civilian official said Wednesday. “We strongly believe that support to Ukraine should be less dependent on short-term, voluntary offers and more dependent on long-term NATO commitments,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before chairing a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers in Brussels. Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 to help replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war. A shortage of...

It is a plan seen as a way to "Trump-proof" aid for Ukraine. The proposals would give the Western alliance a more direct role in coordinating the supply of arms, ammunition and equipment to Kyiv as it fights Russia's invasion, diplomats say. Speaking before the meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the proposal aims to send the message to Russia that it cannot win the war. “What is obvious is that we need new and more money for Ukraine. And we need it over many years. And the whole idea of now discussing a framework, commitments and an institutionalized...

<p>The U.S. and other Western countries are considering transferring to NATO a U.S.-led multinational group that coordinates the shipment of weapons to Ukraine, one of several new proposals that could help maintain the flow of arms to Kyiv under a second Donald Trump presidency.</p>

It is widely accepted that the Ukrainian crisis erupted into a military conflict on February 24, 2022, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the seeds of the hostilities were planted about thirty years earlier by President Clinton and, later, by George W. Bush, both of whom recklessly pushed for NATO’s eastward expansion.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight. Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights.

The Italian airforce said on Friday it intercepted unidentified aircraft flying over international waters in the Baltic Sea, and two defence sources in Rome identified them as Russian planes. The two interceptions were carried out on Thursday and Friday morning by Italian Eurofighter jets based in the Polish base of Malbork as part of a NATO air policing mission, a statement said. After completing their activity, the Italian jets returned to the Polish base, the airforce added, without giving further details.

Putin has claimed Russia has no plans to attack NATO countries but will shoot down F-16 fighter jets sent to Ukraine from Western countries. Speaking at a visit to an air base late Wednesday to military pilots, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had no intention of starting a war with NATO. He called the claim that Russia would attack a NATO member country "sheer nonsense". When asked about F-16 fighter jets, which the West has pledged to send to Ukraine, Putin said that the aircraft would not dramatically alter the situation. At the same meeting, he warned Ukraine’s...

Russia violates the laws of war and uses chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to the Operational Command North of the Armed Forces of Ukaine. "The other day, the enemy threw a gas grenade into the dugout of an infantry battalion. However, the soldier, nicknamed Yaryi, reacted instantly and threw the grenade outside," the statement says. The Russian occupiers dropped a gas grenade from a drone at the positions of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. It was filled with gas that affected the respiratory system... ...The munitions dropped by the Russians are similar to those used by the police...