Lifestyle
U.S. Plans Combined Arms Training for Ukrainian Soldiers
The U.S. has provided both equipment and training to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty against an illegal invasion by Russia that began in February. Now the U.S. will provide Ukrainian soldiers with combined arms and joint maneuver training as well.
«[This] is a logical next step in our ongoing training efforts, which began in 2014, to build the Ukrainian armed forces capacity,» Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing today. «While there’s an understandable focus on the equipment being provided to Ukraine, training is and has been essential to ensuring Ukraine has the skilled forces necessary to better defend themselves.»
Soldiers from U.S. Army Europe and Africa Command’s 7th Army Training Command will provide the combined arms and joint maneuver training, Ryder said. It’s expected that training will happen at U.S. ranges in Germany and will begin in the January timeframe.
The Ukrainians will determine which service members from Ukraine’s armed forces will participate in the training, Ryder said, but it’s expected about 500 Ukrainians a month will participate.
«What you can expect to see is that we will … bring in battalion-sized units, and it will begin with things like live fire exercises, followed by squad, platoon and company level training that will then culminate in battalion-level maneuver training,» said Ryder. «Importantly, it will also include battalion headquarters staff training.»
Training, he said, will begin with classroom exercises and then shift to practical applications in the field beginning with work amongst the lowest-level units and working up to larger-unit training.
«You’ve heard Secretary Austin talk about that the equipment is important, but it’s how to take that equipment and apply it in the field in a way that’s going to enable you to do combined arms and achieve decisive effects on the battlefield,» he said. «This training will contribute to that.»
The U.S. has already been involved in providing training to the Ukrainian armed forces, in particular with regard to equipment the U.S. is providing or has committed to provide. Since April, Ryder said, about 3,100 Ukrainians have been trained.
Ryder also said it’s not expected that additional U.S. troops will need to go to Europe to become involved in the new training.
Lifestyle
FAA investigating contact between 2 United airplanes on Boston Logan tarmac
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a Monday incident between two United Airlines flights at Boston Logan International Airport, the agency said in a statement to CNN.
“As a tow tug was pushing it back from the gate at Boston Logan International Airport, the right wing of United Airlines Flight 515 struck the tail of United Airlines Flight 267 around 8:30 a.m. local time this morning,” the FAA statement said.
“Both aircraft were Boeing 737s that were scheduled for departure,” the statement added.
has reached out to United Airlines and Massport for more information about the incident.
A sudden jolt’
Passenger Nicholas Leone took a photo after the incident and described to CNN what happened.
“I felt a sudden jolt and look to my right to see that the plane had crashed into the still plane, ” he said. “After seeing the fire trucks and police cars, people were a little rattled. Thankfully everyone was able to offboard quickly.”
Passengers said the incident was a little jarring, according to CNN affiliate WHDH in Boston.
“It was just a pretty big shake,” said passenger Martin Neusch. “While we were on the plane, it just clipped the wings, so the two wings clipped each other on the plane.”
The station said passengers on both planes were rebooked on other flights set for Monday afternoon.
The contact between two aircraft on Monday morning follows a string of five close-call incidents earlier this year, including one at Boston Logan last week.
Air traffic controllers stopped a departing private jet from running into a JetBlue flight as it was coming in to land at Logan last Monday night, according to the FAA.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating that incident.
The two planes involved came within 565 feet (172 meters) of colliding, according to Flightradar24’s preliminary review of its data.
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The NTSB is also investigating four other runway incursions involving commercial airliners at major US airports this year.
It’s investigating a possible “runway incursion” in Burbank, California, involving Mesa and SkyWest regional airliners.
Three other incidents have occurred at Honolulu, Austin and New York’s JFK airport this year.
Lifestyle
Flambéed pizza thought to have sparked deadly Madrid restaurant fire
A fire believed to have been started by a flambéed pizza has killed two people and injured 12 others at a restaurant in the Spanish capital Madrid, city officials said Saturday.
“It appears the fire started when a flambéed pizza was being served, which set fire to the decorations in the restaurant,” Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez Almeida told Spain’s state television TVE at the scene on Saturday, hours after the late Friday night blaze.
Spanish media reported that a specialty of the restaurant was a pizza in the flambé style – a cooking procedure where spirits are poured on the food and briefly set alight.
“Firefighters told me it was a ferocious fire in the way it started and the smoke it generated, and if the fire station wasn’t just 100 meters (around 330 feet) away, the number of fatalities could have been higher,” said Almeida, speaking to TVE.
Carlos Marin, a Madrid fire department night supervisor, said the restaurant “had just one exit, and since the fire was very close to the door, people went back to the rear of the restaurant, and they were completely trapped,” in videos tweeted by Madrid city emergency services.
The fire was quickly extinguished. Firefighters pulled 12 injured people from the restaurant, and six were taken to a hospital. That was in addition to the two fatalities, said Montse Marcos, a supervisor with the Madrid city ambulance services.
The fire was in the Plaza de Manuel Becerra, on the edge of the Spanish capital’s upscale Salamanca neighborhood.
Lifestyle
As Ukraine prepares counteroffensive, Russia appears in disarray
Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive appears imminent – and the way each side is preparing speaks volumes about their readiness.
Kyiv’s front lines are abuzz with vehicle movement and artillery strikes, with regular explosions hitting vital Russian targets in occupied areas.
Its defense minister has said preparations are “coming to an end” and President Volodymyr Zelensky has assured a counteroffensive “will happen,” while demurring on any exact start date.
It may have already started; it may be weeks away. We don’t know – and that fact is a strong measure of Ukraine’s success as this begins.
Moscow, on the other hand, is in the closing-time bar brawl stage of their war. After losing Kharkiv and Kherson, they have had at least seven months to ready the next likely target of Ukrainian attack: Zaporizhzhia.
That has happened, with vast trench defense networks that can be seen from space. That recognition of their enormity is not necessarily a compliment in 2023. They are big, yes, but they are also something anyone can peruse on Google. That’s not great in an era of precise rockets and speedy armored advances.
But it’s the last 72 hours that have perhaps most betrayed Russia’s lacking readiness.
First, the apparent firing of the deputy defense minister in charge of logistics, Mikhail Mizintsev. The Russian Ministry of Defense has not spelled out his dismissal, merely issuing a decree that Aleksey Kuzmenkov now has his job.
(A caveat: Prigozhin is not the most trustworthy source, and provides little evidence for what he says. But this sort of public spat isn’t something Moscow would encourage at this sensitive moment).
Russia’s eroding ammunition supplies were long known, but to suggest imminent failure just ahead of the counteroffensive smacks of a major bid to shift blame.
The bottom line is, the hours before Ukraine moves are shrinking. The amount we know about their emotional state, or target, is almost zero. And the extent of Moscow’s internal indecision, rivalries and disunity only grows.
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As Ukraine prepares counteroffensive, Russia appears in disarray