YAVORIV, Ukraine — At this former Soviet military base located some 750 miles to the west of Ukraine’s eastern war zone, the sounds of tank shots, machine guns, and small arms fire snarl throughout the course of this sweltering ...
Jun 18, 2021
Jun 13, 2021
The Triumph and Tragedy of Coast Guard Search and Rescue
You can’t save them all. Coast Guard rescue swimmer Ryan Pierce learned that lesson the day the call came to evacuate a man who’d suffered a heart attack aboard a cruise ship off Florida’s Atlantic coast. Pierce and the other ...
Jun 08, 2021
Germany To Evacuate Its Beer From Afghanistan
How do you say "Leave no beer behind" in German? German defense officials recently announced a plan to airlift some 22,500 liters (about 6,000 gallons) of beer and other alcoholic beverages from Afghanistan in advance of NATO's withdrawal this ...
Jun 03, 2021
WATCH: US Paratroopers Mistakenly Raid Civilian Factory in Bulgaria
Don’t worry Europe, Team America is here to help. Soldiers with the Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade were simulating an airfield seizure at the decommissioned Cheshnegirovo Air Base in Bulgaria on May 11 when they accidentally stormed a civilian ...
Jun 01, 2021
Russia Rattles Its Saber, Announces Troop Buildup on NATO’s Frontier
KYIV, Ukraine — While NATO conducts one of its largest military exercises in Europe in decades, Russia has signaled its displeasure by announcing plans to mass troops on its frontier with the Western military alliance. During a Monday board ...
May 28, 2021
US and Russian Bombers Square Off Over Eastern Mediterranean
KYIV, Ukraine — The skies over the eastern Mediterranean Sea were crowded on Wednesday with dueling US and Russian strategic bomber training exercises, underscoring how the region is fast becoming an upstart arena of competing military interests ...
May 24, 2021
Belarusian Fighter Jet Forces Civilian Airliner to Land; Opposition Journalist Arrested
KYIV, Ukraine — In a brazen move widely condemned by Western leaders, Belarus forced a civilian airliner to land on its territory on Sunday to arrest an opposition journalist. Following a bogus bomb threat, a Belarusian fighter jet forced Ryanair ...
May 18, 2021
Ukraine Plans ‘Cybertroop’ Force To Combat Russian Cyberwarfare
KYIV, Ukraine — Leaders in Ukraine's armed forces plan to create a corps of “cybertroops” to resist Russian cyberwarfare. Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, told a Ukrainian media outlet that ...
May 14, 2021
Hamas Rockets Threaten Israel’s Commercial Air Traffic
Multiple airlines have canceled flights into Israel's largest international airport amid the threat of rocket attacks by the militant group Hamas. The escalating violence prompted Israeli air traffic officials on Thursday to shut down incoming ...
May 12, 2021
What Is America’s Red Line for Military Action After a Cyberattack?
An unprecedented cyberattack by Eastern European hackers shut down a critical gas pipeline to the US East Coast over the weekend. It is, to date, the worst cyberattack to ever strike America’s infrastructure. Over the ensuing days gasoline prices ...
May 10, 2021
Russian Warships ‘Shadow’ US Coast Guard Cutter in Black Sea
KYIV, Ukraine — On Monday the US Coast Guard cutter Hamilton arrived at the Ukrainian port of Odessa following interoperability exercises with the Ukrainian navy in the Black Sea. The Hamilton’s port visit signals the latest development as the US ...
May 07, 2021
Fighting Flares in Eastern Ukraine as Blinken Visits, Pledges US Support
KYIV, Ukraine — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with top Ukrainian officials and civil society leaders during a visit here in the capital city of Ukraine on Thursday. Meanwhile, about 400 miles to the east in Ukraine’s embattled Donbas ...
May 05, 2021
‘Where Freedom Is Won’ — A US Veteran Visits Ukraine’s Eastern War Zone
AVDIIVKA, Ukraine — When you hear the sound you remember it and there’s no mistaking it for anything else. The thunder rolls in from the trenches — from where you are, about a mile away across a field and behind a tree line. The intrusive sound ...
May 05, 2021
Pentagon on Watch as Out-of-Control Chinese Rocket Nears Earth Atmosphere Reentry
An out-of-control Chinese rocket is expected to reenter the Earth's atmosphere on Saturday. And no one knows where it will land. The Pentagon announced in a statement that it's keeping an eye on a Chinese Long March 5B rocket, which launched a ...
May 04, 2021
US Air Force Transports Deliver Aid to COVID-Ravaged India
With India in the throes of the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreak, US Air Force transport aircraft are delivering loads of vital aid. Over the past week, one C-17 Globemaster III and three C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft have embarked for India with ...
Apr 30, 2021
Fighting Escalates on Ukraine’s Eastern Front: An Exclusive Report From the War Zone
Standing in the garden of her home on the outskirts of this front-line Ukrainian town, Nastya Troitskaya points over the wall in the direction of the trenches and says: “When the shelling gets really loud, the children always cry. ...
Apr 26, 2021
35 Years After Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, Kyiv Seeks World Heritage Designation for ‘Exclusion Zone’
KYIV, Ukraine — Monday marks 35 years since an explosion at reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sent a plume of radioactive material into the atmosphere, fatally contaminating the nearby areas and sending radioactive fallout across ...
Apr 22, 2021
Russia Blinks First, Announces Troop Drawdown Near Ukraine Border
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia's defense chief announced Thursday that the Kremlin was pulling troops back from its southern borders with Ukraine. The announcement of the drawdown potentially marks a de-escalatory turning point in a crisis that began weeks ...
Apr 21, 2021
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Challenges Putin to War-Zone Meeting as Pro-Navalny Protests Sweep Russia
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing challenges on two fronts this week. Protests are planned in 160 cities across Russia Wednesday in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Meanwhile, following an ...
Apr 15, 2021
Ukrainians Are Fighting for Us
Trench warfare is a true test of a soldier’s grit. The thing is, there’s no escaping the danger. You could die just as easily while walking to the toilet as you could while holding the line under artillery fire. You never know when the shelling will ...
Apr 13, 2021
Ukraine’s Unconventional Warfare Plan to Resist a Russian Invasion
KYIV, Ukraine — Should Russia invade, a national network of Ukrainian irregular military units is prepared to wage a protracted, guerrilla resistance campaign. Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces comprise about 100,000 reservists and civilian ...
Apr 08, 2021
Russian Military Builds Field Camps Near Ukraine Border, Intel Groups Report
KYIV, Ukraine — Several open-source intelligence groups have identified what they allege to be new Russian military field camps — comprising artillery, rocket systems, a field hospital, and hundreds of vehicles — within a day’s drive of the Ukrainian ...
Apr 06, 2021
Russia Tensions Escalate After Clashes Kill 4 Ukrainian Soldiers in 2 Days
KYIV, Ukraine — Four Ukrainian soldiers have died in combat against Russian-backed forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region during the past two days. The deaths come amid heightened military tensions between Kyiv and Moscow following a recent uptick ...
Apr 05, 2021
A ‘Shield for Europe’ — Ukraine Courts NATO Ties While Russian Military Masses on Its Borders
KYIV, Ukraine — On the Soviet Union’s battlefield maps, red icons symbolized friendly forces and blue symbols denoted the NATO enemy. After Russia seized Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014, Ukrainian forces flipped the colors of their ...
Apr 02, 2021
Russia Masses Troops, Armor on Ukraine’s Borders; Fears Mount of Wider War
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia has deployed troops and armor near Ukraine’s eastern border and in Crimea, sparking fears of a wider war after years of stalemated trench combat in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Amid the mounting crisis, US President Joe ...
Mar 30, 2021
Local Opposition Stalls $1.9 Billion Hawaii-Based Homeland Defense Radar
Defending the US homeland from the threat of ballistic missiles is among the American military’s top priorities in the great power competition era. Both China and Russia wield arsenals of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking ...
Mar 29, 2021
US Green Berets in Mozambique as ‘Brutal’ ISIS Siege Unfolds in the North, Spurring ‘Dunkirk-Style’ Evacuation
Sunday marked the fifth day of heavy fighting between militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, or ISIS, and government forces in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado, underscoring a rapidly worsening security situation less than ...
Mar 25, 2021
Putin Has a ‘Nuclear Football,’ Too
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin is always accompanied by a military aide carrying a briefcase that contains the required communications equipment and authorization codes to launch Russia’s nuclear weapons arsenal within ...
Mar 24, 2021
Amid Migrant Surge, HHS Taps Pentagon to House Children at Texas Military Bases
The Department of Health and Human Services has asked the Department of Defense to review the possibility of housing unaccompanied migrant children at two military bases in Texas, underscoring a mounting crisis at the US-Mexico border that has left ...
Mar 23, 2021
US-Led Coalition Hits ISIS With 151 Airstrikes in 2 Weeks
The war against ISIS may no longer top the headlines, but it’s far from over. The US-led, multinational airpower coalition against ISIS carried out at least 151 airstrikes in Iraq over the past two weeks, marking the most significant bombing ...