Free Republic

Russians have been told to grow their own bananas as a shortage looms, days after President Vladimir Putin issued a ban on imports from Ecuador, its largest supplier of the fruit, seemingly over an arms shipment spat. Oleg Knyazkov, the head of the industry expertise center at Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian consumer watchdog, told local news outlet Gazeta that he predicts there will be a nationwide shortage of bananas in a month. He advised Russians to start growing them domestically. His comments come after Putin suspended banana imports from five Ecuadorian companies on February 2, saying the decision was made due...

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims he has earned less than $1 million during the past six years as president, according to financial documents published Tuesday by Russia's election authority. The documents from the Central Election Commission (CEC) show Putin reported making 67.6 million rubles, which is approximately $753,000, between 2018 and 2024. Along with his salary as president, this figure includes income from bank deposits, a military pension and money made from property sales. -snip- According to information Putin provided to the CEC, he has savings of 54.5 million rubles ($606,000) spread across 10 different bank accounts and owns a...

A joint statement by the United States and its partners on Tuesday condemned arms transfers between North Korea and Russia, including what it termed as Russia's procurement of North Korean ballistic missiles and Moscow's use of those against Ukraine on Dec. 30 and Jan. 2. WHY IT IS IMPORTANTBoth Moscow and Pyongyang have drawn closer since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, though they deny making any arms deals. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Far East region last September and senior Russian officials have made several visits to Pyongyang. Last week the White...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging women to have as many as eight children as the number of dead Russian soldiers continues to rise in his war with Ukraine, worsening the country's population crisis. Addressing the World Russian People's Council in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin said the country must return to a time when large families were the norm. "Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven, eight, or even more children," Putin said. "Let us preserve and revive these excellent traditions. Large families must become the norm, a way of life for all of Russia's people. The family is...

Israel will hardly be able to ensure its security even by “drowning the Gaza Strip in blood,” Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said on Monday. “Even by decapitating Hamas and even by drowning the Gaza Strip in blood it will hardly be possible to ensure Israel's security. After some time, the tide of hatred and terrorism may rise again with renewed force. This cannot be ruled out,” Ushakov said as cited by state news agency TASS. “The Palestinian problem is unrivalled in terms of its ability to spread to the global level,” he added. “Israel's military measures fail to narrow...

Hamas thanked Vladimir Putin for his support for the “Palestinian cause” as the terror group released a Russian hostage from the Gaza Strip on Sunday afternoon. It said its release of a Russian citizen from the war-ravaged territory was made in appreciation of the position taken by Moscow’s position on the conflict with Israel. “In response to the efforts of Russian president Putin and in appreciation of the Russian position in support of the Palestinian cause, we released a detainee who holds Russian citizenship,” Hamas said.

Hamas’ brutal assault against Israel came on Vladimir Putin’s birthday. Such a catastrophic security shock in the Middle East was probably a welcome surprise for a Russian president whose strategic priority is to divert Western support and attention away from Ukraine. A massive conflagration in Israel risks doing exactly that. The big question is how much credit to give the Kremlin for the perfect storm of mounting crises — in Israel, Kosovo, the Caucasus and Africa — that are rearing up on America and Europe. For many, it’s tempting to see Putin as a mastermind or puppetmaster, stirring up more...

Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts. They're among hundreds of military and civilian offenders who've been pressed into Russian penal units known as "Storm-Z" squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units. Few live to tell their tale, the people said. (snip) "Storm fighters, they're just meat," said one regular soldier from army unit no. 40318 who was deployed near the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in May and June. (snip) Russian state-controlled media has reported that Storm-Z squads exist, that...

Russia's air force has lost 90 planes since the start of the war in Ukraine and is becoming less formidable by overworking its jets, UK intelligence said. The British Ministry of Defence said in its latest daily intelligence update on Thursday that Russia is quickly depleting its fleet of warplanes through overuse because the conflict is dragging on for much longer than anticipated. "All aircraft have a projected lifespan, in flying hours," the update said, adding that it's highly likely that with the extra use, Russia is "eating into many of its airframes' lifespans" far more quickly than planned for....

“Robotyne has been liberated,” Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar announced on August 28. Although the tiny village, which had a pre-war population of fewer than 500 people, may be of little importance in itself, it lies along a strategic road that leads to the Russian-occupied road and railway hub of Tokmak. From there, another road leads to the key city of Melitopol, which, prior to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, was known to Ukrainians as the “gateway” to the peninsula. Last week’s victory was therefore an important advance for Ukraine. Just a few days earlier, however, fighters...

Ukrainian forces have made “notable progress” in their counteroffensive over the last 72 hours, notching wins against the second line of Russian defenders, a White House spokesman, John F. Kirby, said at a news conference on Friday. The United States, Mr. Kirby said, will not discuss Ukraine’s war plans, or how its forces would exploit their gains. But, he added, the U.S. expects Ukraine to continue to push further south, requiring “tough fighting ahead.” Ukraine’s military celebrated a tactical victory earlier this week when its forces retook the southern village of Robotyne. Days later, Ukrainian assault units moved east toward...

A sharp rise in drone attacks targeting Russian territory is likely to intensify, analysts say, with Kyiv appearing increasingly determined to bring the destruction, instability and unpredictability of war — albeit a fraction of what it is experiencing itself — home to Russia. Russia has seen a sharp rise in unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, carrying out assaults on western, central and southern Russian regions as well as the capital Moscow and Russian-occupied Crimea in recent weeks. While Ukraine is continuing a counteroffensive on its own soil to regain Russian-occupied territory in the south and east of the country, and...

In the 13 weeks since launching a long-anticipated counteroffensive along several axes in southern and eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has lost just five of its 71 Leopard 2 tanks. Many more of the German-made tanks—at least 10—have suffered damage. But the Ukrainians are repairing the damaged tanks at depots in Poland and Germany and returning them to the front. The fundamental toughness of the 69-ton Leopard 2 means tanks might take damage, visit a repair depot, return to the fighting then again take damage and head out for repairs. So on and so forth. The Leopard 2 lends itself...

Ukrainian strikes on Russian rear areas are "demonstrably degrading" the morale of Russian forces in Ukraine, and this "could threaten the stability of Russian defenses on multiple critical areas of the front," the ISW said.... The ISW said morale issues can quickly intensify and spread among Russian frontline units if one unit under pressure breaks, which in turn could "spread panic" and "significantly reduce the combat effectiveness of other Russian forces." "A broken Russian frontline unit would threaten the integrity of other frontline defenses, and such a break in the Russian frontline would provide a vulnerability that Ukrainian forces could...

Russian lawmakers have passed legislation changing the age categories for those called up for the military potentially meaning that older troops could be sent to fight in Ukraine. With President Vladimir Putin's forces reportedly facing heavy losses in his invasion of Ukraine, Russia's parliament, the Duma, has this week passed a raft of measures to help with mobilization, including tougher fines for those who avoid the draft as well as extending upper age limits for reserves. The State Duma said Tuesday it had adopted a law raising the maximum age by half a decade for those who had already completed...

A Ukrainian official tweeted a video of troops holding a flag in the settlement, located about halfway between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia in the country's southeast. "The 35th brigade and the 'Ariy' territorial defence unit have fulfilled their task and liberated the village of Staromaiorske. Glory to Ukraine!" said a soldier in the video. Staromaiorske lies to the south of a number of small settlements that Ukraine has recaptured during its counteroffensive, which began in June. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had hinted at a significant win on the frontline last night. "By the way, today our boys had very good results...

Ukrainian forces reportedly launched a massive push against Russia's front-lines in the country's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, threatening Russian positions that had been overseen by a general who was recently fired. The surge marks a dramatic change in pace for Ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive. For nearly two months, Kyiv's troops were forced to make slow and steady advances to liberate occupied territory as they faced Russia's formidable defensive lines, which include deadly networks of trenches, barbed wire, anti-armor obstacles, and minefields. Clearing the Russian fortifications — particularly the minefields — has been a painstaking process for Ukraine, which managed to preserve lots...

As former President Donald Trump ramps up his 2024 presidential campaign, new polling reveals that while more than half of Americans believe he intentionally did something illegal after his indictment, many believe it was politically motivated. Trump was arraigned Tuesday in New York City on charges stemming from alleged 2016 hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, making him the first former president in American history to be criminally charged. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 48% of Americans think Trump should suspend his presidential campaign following the indictment, up 5 points from last week. The survey...

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s prized bridge — the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia and the Crimean Peninsula — was forced to shut down Saturday following a Ukrainian drone strike on a nearby ammunition depot, Russian-backed authorities said. Ukraine said that its army had destroyed an oil depot along with Russian military warehouses in Russian-occupied Crimea with the strike. Video on social media showed a plume of thick black smoke rising from the site of the attack. Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed governor of the peninsula, confirmed a drone hit the ammunition depot, which prompted an evacuation order for everyone within a...

One of the minor outcomes of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s March for Justice on Moscow was that, after he was banished to Belarus, his media empire was shut down. Now there are reports that former employees, who are no longer covered by NDAs, are speaking up about how the propaganda was actually made. (snip) There are apparently a long string of fake reports which were later debunked, designed to anger the populace back home. One infamous story claimed that Ukrainian nationalists had crucified a 3-year-old. This was claimed by an alleged witness who was interviewed back in 2014. "Pretending to be an...