Free Republic

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 yesterday claimed that four occupied Ukrainian regions would remain part of Russia ‘for ever’ in a bizarre 40-minute tirade that included rants about ‘Satanism’ and colonialism. The rambling speech formed part of a ceremony in Moscow that formally confirmed his land grab following a series of rigged referendums. Ambling late to the podium in front of hundreds of ashen-faced officials, the despot lashed out at the West’s ‘neo-colonial’ foreign policy. ‘I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that they remember this,’ Putin said. ‘People living in Luhansk and Donetsk,...