Free Republic

After the two world wars in the 20th century, mapmakers were kept busy redrawing boundaries. Empires disappeared, new countries were born, and power alliances shifted radically. No matter what happens in Ukraine going forward, a weakened Russia cannot “win” in any conventional sense of the word. They may gain a little territory, but at such a horrific cost in money, men, and prestige that their status as a “superpower” will be questioned — even though their nuclear stockpile will (hopefully) remain intact.

The Russian-installed governor of Ukraine's Kherson region appealed to residents on Thursday to evacuate amid fighting between Russian and advancing Ukrainian forces. In a video statement on the Telegram app, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed head of the Kherson administration, also publicly asked for Moscow's help in transporting civilians into Russia.

Col Douglas Macgregor - the build up for a Russian offensive in NovemberCol. Douglas Macgregor: "Keep in mind, these reservists are going into groups of Russian forces that are collecting in the south and on the borders in western part of Russia and Belorussia. These forces are going to be quite large by the time they amass. They won't be used in mass in a concentrated fashion until November. What you're seeing happen right now after all of these massive counterattacks launched by the Ukrainians that achieved, frankly, nothing from a strategic standpoint at all. They have taker such horrendous...

At least 11 people were killed and 15 more wounded at a Russian military training ground on Saturday when two attackers opened fire on a group of volunteers who wished to fight in Ukraine, RIA news agency said. The deadly incident is just the latest in a series of high-profile setbacks for Moscow's forces since the Feb. 24 invasion. RIA, citing the defence ministry, said the two assailants had been shot dead after the attack in the southwestern Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine. It said they were nationals from a former Soviet republic but did not give any details. "During...

Ukraine’s capital region was struck by Iranian-made kamikaze drones early Thursday, officials said, sending rescue workers rushing to the scene as residents awoke to air raid sirens for the fourth consecutive morning following Russia’s major assault across the country earlier this week. Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike occurred in the area around the capital. It wasn’t yet clear if there were any casualties. Deputy head of the presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram that “critical infrastructure facilities” in the area were hit, without offering any details on which ones.

During the past day, the enemy continued to terrorize the civilian population of the Kharkiv region. In the Chuhuiiv district, an infrastructure object was damaged by 4 rocket strikes. According to Censor.NET, the head of the Kharkiv RMA Oleh Synehubov reported this. "Yesterday evening, around 9:00 p.m., the Russian occupiers launched a rocket attack on the Kholodnohirsky district of Kharkiv, hitting the road surface was recorded. There were no casualties. In the Chuguyiv district, an infrastructure facility was damaged by 4 rocket strikes. Previously, 1 person was injured," the message reads. It is noted that yesterday the enemy massively shelled...

On Saturday, the Ukrainians hit the Kerch Strait Bridge, which leads from Russia to Crimea, with something—a missile, explosives planted by naval commandos, a truck laden with explosives. No one who knows is saying for sure.(snip)The tactical questions of how the Ukrainians pulled off this strike and of whether lasting damage has occurred are interesting and important but currently unresolvable publicly. What can, however, be more profitably discussed is what this tells us about where the Russia-Ukraine war is headed. “Battles are the principal milestones of secular history,” Winston Churchill wrote in his biography of the Duke of Marlborough. The...

Russian nationals living in Estonia will have their firearms forcibly confiscated by the police if they refuse to hand them over voluntarily under a new law. The gun confiscation measure will also apply to Belarusians living in the eastern European country. The government has finalized the details of the bill and it will be put before the legislature, after which it is expected to be voted into law. ...

In an effort to distract attention from its losses in Ukraine and obfuscate its war on Ukrainian civilians, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations accused the United States, the United Kingdom and unnamed other Western countries of launching “the largest in history war by proxy with Russia using Ukrainians and ready to go “until the last Ukrainian”. He then claimed that it was Ukraine and its Western supporters, not Russia, who started the war. It’s time to set the record straight. Leading up to Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Russia fervently insisted that it had no plans to...

Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, is convening a meeting of her security council on Tuesday following a series of incidents in the breakaway Moldovan republic of Transnistria and a warning from Moscow that the Russian-backed region could be drawn into the war in Ukraine. Transnistria, which borders western Ukraine, is controlled by pro-Russia separatists and permanently hosts 1,500 Russian troops as well as a large arms depot. Last week, a senior Russian commander said the goal of Russia’s new offensive was to seize control of southern Ukraine and to gain access to Transnistria, creating worries that the small east European country...

U.S.: Russia uses ceasefire process to seize key Syria territory By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent Updated 1:31 PM ET, Thu February 25, 2016 Washington (CNN)The Russian military has used the time while Moscow and Washington hammered out a ceasefire in Syria in recent weeks to take key territory that could dramatically increasing Russia's influence in the country, according to U.S. officials. The moves could allow Russia to control a large section of Syria's western border with Turkey, raising critical questions about how reliable allies the groups inside Syria that the U.S. is supporting remain, the officials said. "The Russians...

Several United Nations Security Council members pressed Russia on Wednesday to stop bombing around Syria's Aleppo in support of a Syrian military offensive and allow humanitarian access ahead of a crucial meeting of major powers in Germany on the conflict. The 15-member Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the situation after the U.N. warned that hundreds of thousands of civilians could be cut off from food if Syrian government forces encircle rebel-held parts of Aleppo. "Russia's air strikes have been a direct cause of this crisis around Aleppo," New Zealand's U.N. Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen told reporters after...

A Ukrainian official said Thursday that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a passenger jet traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down near Snizhe today, a town close to the Ukrainian-Russian border. The plane was carrying 295 people and crashed early evening, local time. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but immediate reports say that the airplane was grounded by a BUK surface-to-air missile system. The BUK, developed by the Soviet Union in 1979, has remained widely in use throughout the former Soviet states, including Ukraine. General Philip Breedlove, the commander of the U.S. European Command, said that...

Russian president’s envoy Vladimir Lukin cannot reach the town of Slavyansk in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk region because the Ukrainian army units and Right Sector radicals, who blocked access roads to the town, do not allow him to come to the town, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday. According to the ministry, Lukin is currently in Donetsk and is ready to promptly leave for Slavyansk to have talks on the release of captured military observers from a number of European countries. “A preliminary agreement has been reach with the heads of Slavyansk that European officers will be able to leave...

Moscow urged Kiev to give more information whether Russians were among Odessa fire victims, otherwise the report would be viewed as a new attempt to blame Russia for everything, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated. Ukrainian media reported that 15 of the victims in Odessa were Russian citizens who allegedly had participated in protests. "A question arises on what materials such conclusions are based. If all the victims are identified and there are confirming documents, they must be immediately made public, but not playing on feelings of relatives of the victims and trying to stir up emotions among people who are...

The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) insists on occupation of Ukraine by Belarusian and Russian troops. Vladimir Zhirinovsky thinks it should be done by May 9. “The entire country will breathe freely and will be able to celebrate another victory,” the LDPR leader told RSN radio. He said members of all groups in the State Duma demanded that the Russian leadership should take urgent measures to stop the punitive operation of the Kyiv authorities. “Our leadership will take a range of measures to provide security of citizens of the southeast [of Ukraine] and make the armed...

Dozens of Ukrainian army defectors rode into the disputed eastern town of Slovyansk today on a column of armoured troop carriers bearing the Russian national flag. The defectors, including highly trained paratroopers. were said to have switched sides after being persuaded to defect by pro-Russian insurgents in nearby Kramatorsk, where they were part of a Ukrainian force that secured a military airfield yesterday. With Russian flags flying, the soldiers headed on a convoy of six troop carriers into Slovyansk, stopping first outside city hall, which has been occupied by pro-Russian protesters for several days, before entering the police station.

TBILISI - Georgian Interior Ministry troops has launched a special mission near the city of Zugdidi in the western part of the country to disarm and detain so-called Georgian partisans that prowl the zone of Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. According to information from the Ministry, the Special Forces, including helicopters, from Tbilisi were used in the operation, led by Georgian Interior Minister Goergy Baramidze, Izvestia reports. The operation came a day after new Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said he plans to disarm all criminal groups in the country. The criminals in question are partisans, who are terrorizing Zugdidi region, engage in contraband...