Free Republic

Key figures including Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin are using military defeats to undermine defence chief Sergei Shoigu. Friends, rivals and enemies took their seats in the Grand Kremlin Palace as Vladimir Putin gathered the country’s elite to formalise Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine. The ceremony was meant to portray strength and unity, but within 24 hours had been overshadowed by Russia’s failures on the battlefield. These losses, which continued into this week on the southern and eastern fronts in Ukraine, have led to a major, unprecedented rupture within the ruling class as the Kremlin seeks scapegoats...

A leading Ukrainian presidential aide claimed this morning that the explosion which damaged a key bridge in Crimea may have been ordered by one of Vladimir Putin's warring commanders. The 12 mile crossing over the Kerch strait links Crimea to the Russian mainland and is a major artery for Putin's forces that control most of southern Ukraine's Kherson region and for the Russian naval port of Sevastopol. It was damaged in an explosion early Saturday morning which saw chunks of the bridge fall into the sea and a large fire break out. The incident prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials...

They will inspect structural integrity of bridge and look for more evidence Russia blamed the explosion on a truck bomb and is trying to identify its driver But a mysterious wave underneath the bridge was seen moments before blast The clip aroused suspicions that the bridge was targeted by a Ukrainian craft Russian frogmen are now examining the damage left by a powerful blast on the Kerch bridge to Crimea that is a prestigious symbol of Moscow's annexation of the peninsula and a key supply route to forces battling in southern Ukraine. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said the...

According to Polishchuk, Moscow is ready to accept intermediary services at peace talks on the terms that “Kyiv has already rejected.”Read also: Negotiations have no chance of ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, says Germany“Many countries are currently offering their mediation in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” Polishchuk said.“There is no shortage of intermediary services, and we’re not refusing them.”

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Joe Biden’s remarks warning of “armageddon” amid nuclear threats from Russia were “right.” At a fundraiser last week, Biden said, “We have not faced the prospect of armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Discussing Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden added, “I know fairly well. He’s not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons.”

The impact of the use of a nuclear device in Ukraine will depend on the details. Like any large-scale industrial army, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have obvious pressure points that would be vulnerable to nuclear attack. These include logistical centers, command and communications nodes, and concentrations of front-line forces. During the Cold War the Soviet Union expected to use tactical nuclear weapons against NATO (and expected that NATO would use them in return) and it is therefore likely that the Russian armed forces have workable theories as to how they might best use tactical nukes to inflict damage on Ukraine’s...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

Denys Davydov Follow on Instagram for up to date uploads there. https://www.instagram.com/denys_pilot/ Also, you may check military maps here: https://militaryland.net/ https://deepstatemap.live/

Recently mobilized Russian soldiers are decrying "inhumane" conditions, weapons shortages and mistreatment by officers, according to video published by the independent news website The Insider on Wednesday. Footage of new recruits sleeping on the floor, being armed with outdated rifles and ordered to source their own supplies appeared almost immediately after President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial” mobilization last month. Around 500 troops gathered in western Russia’s Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border with no training and no knowledge of where they were being deployed, the latest video’s authors said. “Nobody needs us,” a voice behind the camera, flanked by...

At Russian checkpoint in Vasylivka, 6 thousand people are queuing to leave, people have been waiting for more than 10 days. As informs Censor.NЕТ, it was reported in Telegram by Mayor of temporarily occupied Melitopol Ivan Fedorov. "There are 6 thousand people at the enemy checkpoint in Vasylivka. They have been queuing to leave the temporarily occupied territories for more than 10 days," he wrote. Fedorov also noted that after the explosion of the bridge in Crimea, panic began among the occupiers and collaborators. People are going from Crimea to Berdyansk. According to him, the railway connection in the temporarily...

Two of Putin's top army lieutenants have 'openly declared war' on Defence Minister and staunch Putin loyalist Sergei Shoigu after a series of embarrassing defeats for the Kremlin in Ukraine. Chechen boss Ramzan Kadyrov and founder of the Wagner 'private army' or militia Yevgeny Prigozhin have turned on the minister amid heavy defeats and losses over the last two weeks, The Guardian reports. It comes after Russia illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions including Donetsk and Luhansk in an announcement to which he gathered all of the country's top leaders and told the world the regions would 'remain with Russia forever.'...

Barnes, 32, is an Iraq War veteran who served one tour over a decade ago. "There is such an insane loss of life. It's like Iraq and Afghanistan had nothing on this isolated combat, driving around waiting for someone to shoot at us. I thought I knew what war was. No, no, no. That's not war. This is war." UNIQUE CULTURE "The culture, the people—it was the stoicism. I really respected the stoicism, but also respected that as soon as they let you in, it was nothing but family. I really respected their willingness to fight for what they believed...

A stunning series of photos and videos shows the violent impact of the explosion that tore through Russia’s prized Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea early Saturday morning. A monstrous fireball bloomed over all four of the bridge’s vehicle lanes at 6:07 a.m. as a passenger car and a freight truck drove side by side up the incline to its towering arch. The flames appeared to reach across the water, enveloping the twin railroad bridge about 100 feet away.

At least 30.000 Russian soldiers stranded in eastern Ukraine!

Click to enlargeAttack On Kerch Bridge: Initial Geolocation Of Damage🇷🇺 This will undoubtedly go down in history as a textbook conventional strategic strike on vital infrastructure. Yet we do not yet know how it was achieved. The fog of war is still thick, just hours after the attack.Ahead of fresh satellite imagery, I have made a first pass at geolocating the damage, caveats apply. It appears to be south of the steel arches over the shipping lane.At least three spans of road appear to have collapsed into the sea. There are two sets of lanes and only the inbound (towards...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

Ukrainian president and ex-comedian Volodymyr Zelensky rediscovered his comic chops in a tongue-in-cheek weather report following damage to a key strategic bridge between Russia and Moscow-annexed Crimea. The Kyiv leader poked fun at the humiliating attack on Putin's supply line, making the audacious comments in his nightly video address posted on Telegram. Zelensky said: 'Today was a good and mostly sunny day in our country. Over most of the territory, it was about 20 degrees Celsius and sunny. 'Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea, although it was still warm. But however the clouds are, Ukrainians know what to do, and...

Breaking: The Kerch Bridge, which connects occupied Crimea to Russia, is on fire.

Denys Davydov Follow on Instagram for up to date uploads there. https://www.instagram.com/denys_pilot/ Also, you may check military maps here: https://militaryland.net/ https://deepstatemap.live/

Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin has a very simple solution to ending Putin’s war in Ukraine. When asked about an off-ramp for Putin, she replied, “The way out of the conflict is for Russia to leave Ukraine. That’s the way out of the conflict.” What more do you need to know?