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A U.S. Army soldier has been detained by Russian authorities in the port city Vladivostok on charges of criminal misconduct, the State and Defense Departments said on Monday, adding what is likely to be another complication in the contentious relationship between Moscow and Washington. A military official identified the soldier as Staff Sgt. He was apprehended on May 2, and Russia notified the State Department of the soldier’s “criminal detention” in accordance with international agreements between the two nations. “The Army notified his family, and the U.S. Department of State is providing appropriate consular support to the soldier in Russia,” Cynthia O. Smith, an Army spokeswoman, said in a statement. A State Department official reiterated the U.S. government’s warning for Americans not to travel to Russia.

Persons: Gordon Black, ” Cynthia O, Smith, Sergeant Black Organizations: U.S . Army, State and Defense, State Department of, Army, U.S . Department of State, State Department, NBC News Locations: Vladivostok, Moscow, Washington, Fort Cavazos, Texas, South Korea, Russia

Image Robert Card. Mr. Card was last known to be driving a white Subaru Outback with a black bumper, officials said. The neighbor, Rick Goddard, 44, said he had known the Card family most of his life, because Mr. Goddard lives less than a mile down the road from the Card family house. At the address for the Card family home, no one answered the door on Thursday, and there was only one car parked out front. “We’re on edge right now because we know this is his stomping area,” Mr. Goddard said.

Persons: Robert R, Robert Card, ” Col, William G, Ross, Robert Russell Card II, Card, Bowdoin, Rick Goddard, Goddard, Robert, Card’s, Mr Organizations: . Lewiston, . Lewiston Maine Police Department, Associated Press, Maine State Police, Pentagon, Army Reserve, Subaru, Bowdoin, Mr Locations: Maine, Lewiston ., ., . Lewiston Maine, U.S, Lisbon, Lewiston

Travis T. King, the American soldier who returned to the United States last month after crossing into North Korea in July, has been charged in military court with multiple offenses, including desertion, assaulting other soldiers and child pornography. Private King, 23, is being held at a civilian jail just outside Fort Bliss, near El Paso, according to a family spokesman. He was moved there from Fort Sam Houston, near San Antonio, where he had been undergoing reintegration procedures. The charges were filed on Sunday by officials at Fort Bliss. Private King was made aware of them on Wednesday, the family spokesman said.

Persons: Travis T, King, Fort Sam Houston, Private King, King’s, Claudine Gates of, ” Organizations: Fort Bliss Locations: United States, North Korea, Fort Bliss, El Paso, Fort Sam, San Antonio, Claudine Gates of Racine, Wis

☆ State Department Official Resigns Over Arms Transfers to Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( John Ismay | More About John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A State Department official in the bureau that oversees arms transfers resigned this week in protest of the Biden administration’s decision to continue sending weapons and ammunition to Israel as it lays siege to Gaza in its war with Hamas. In his resignation letter, Josh Paul, who has been the director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for over 11 years, said the Biden administration’s “blind support for one side” was leading to policy decisions that were “shortsighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values we publicly espouse.”“The response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people,” he wrote, adding, “I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it for longer.”In an interview, Mr. Paul said that Israel’s cutting off of water, food, medical care and electricity to Gaza, a territory of two million people, should prompt protections in a number of longstanding federal laws intended to keep American weapons out of the hands of human rights violators. But those legal guardrails are failing, he said.

Persons: Biden, Josh Paul, Biden administration’s, ”, Paul Organizations: Department, State Department’s Bureau, Political, Military Affairs Locations: Israel, Gaza

☆ Three American Lives Forever Changed by a Weapon Now Being Sent to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( John Ismay | More About John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Marines were experts in their craft, trained for missions like these, and still there was an accident. Their task that day was made even more difficult by the sheer scale of the mess they had to clean up. Mass produced toward the end of the Cold War, cluster munitions of this type scatter dozens or even hundreds of the tiny grenades at a time. These grenades were designed to destroy enemy tanks and soldiers deep behind enemy lines on land allied soldiers were never meant to tread. More than 100 nations have banned their use because of the harm they pose, especially to children, but the United States, Russia and Ukraine have not.

Organizations: Marines Locations: Ukraine, United States, Russia

In a long-awaited move, the United States will allow allies to send American-made F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv once Ukrainian pilots are trained to operate them, a U.S. official confirmed on Thursday. However, the requirement that Ukraine’s pilots be fully trained means that the approvals will not come for months. Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began two months ago, has a chance of prevailing without the fighter jets, experts say, but it is likely to be far more difficult. The U.S. decision had been anticipated since May, when President Biden eased his resistance to NATO allies’ efforts to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s and provide the jets to Ukraine. The official who confirmed the U.S. shift was not authorized to publicly discuss the agreement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Persons: Yuriy Ihnat, ”, Biden Organizations: U.S, Ukraine’s Air Force, NATO Locations: United States, Kyiv, Ukrainian, Ukraine, U.S

☆ Russia Is Replicating Iranian Drones and Using Them to Attack Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( John Ismay | More About John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russia has begun making copies of attack drones it acquired from Iran last year and is using them in combat against Ukrainian forces despite sanctions imposed to cripple the country’s weapons production, according to a report issued Thursday by a weapons research group. The researchers traveled to Kyiv in late July and inspected the wreckage of two attack drones that were used in combat in southeastern Ukraine. Both appeared to be Iranian Shahed-136s, but they contained electronic modules that match components previously recovered from Russian surveillance drones, according to the report. The investigation was conducted by Conflict Armament Research, an independent group based in Britain that identifies and tracks weapons and ammunition used in wars. It is the group’s 10th published account of its work in Kyiv, where researchers have analyzed Russian military hardware collected on the battlefield by Ukraine’s security services.

Organizations: Ukrainian, Armament Research Locations: Russia, Iran, Kyiv, Ukraine, Iranian, Britain

☆ Biden Nominates Adm. Lisa Franchetti to Lead the Navy
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( John Ismay | More About John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since the days of John Paul Jones and the American Revolution, the top job in the U.S. Navy has gone to a man, but that will change if President Biden’s pick to become the service’s top uniformed leader is confirmed. The White House announced on Friday that President Biden intends to nominate Adm. Lisa Franchetti to become the Navy’s highest-ranking officer following the retirement of Adm. Michael M. Gilday this summer. Lloyd J. Austin III, the secretary of defense, said he was proud that Admiral Franchetti had been selected to be the first woman to lead the Navy and to serve as a permanent member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “She will continue to inspire all of us,” Mr. Austin said in a statement. Currently the Navy’s vice chief, Admiral Franchetti will serve in an acting role as the Navy’s top officer, awaiting confirmation by the Senate — a process that Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, has blocked for hundreds of admirals and generals in an attempt to force the Pentagon to drop a policy offering time off and travel reimbursement to service members who need to go out of state for abortions.

Persons: John Paul Jones, Biden’s, Biden, Lisa Franchetti, Michael M, Lloyd J, Austin III, Franchetti, “, ” Mr, Austin, Admiral Franchetti, Tommy Tuberville Organizations: American, U.S . Navy, White, Joint Chiefs, Staff, Senate, Republican, Pentagon Locations: Alabama

U.S. officials said Thursday that they had no information on the whereabouts or condition of an Army soldier who crossed into North Korea without authorization and had not spoken to North Korean authorities about the incident. The soldier, Pvt. Travis T. King, was supposed to fly to Texas on Tuesday to face disciplinary actions for misconduct. But instead of boarding his flight at the international airport in Incheon, about 30 miles west of Seoul, he joined a civilian group that went to tour the joint security area between North and South Korea at Panmunjom, where he ran across the border and was taken into custody by North Korean forces. John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the administration is “doing everything we can” to determine the soldier’s condition and “making it clear that we want to see him safely and quickly returned to the United States and to his family.”But winning Private King’s release — and learning about his status — is greatly complicated by a deep diplomatic freeze between the United States and North Korea, which technically remain at war.

Persons: Travis T, John Kirby Organizations: Army, North, National Security Council Locations: North Korea, Texas, Incheon, Seoul, North, South Korea, Panmunjom, North Korean, United States

☆ Cluster Weapons U.S. Is Sending Ukraine Often Fail to Detonate
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( John Ismay | More About John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When the White House announced on Friday that it would agree to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions, it came after assurances from Pentagon officials that the weapons had been improved to minimize the danger to civilians. The weapons, which have been shunned by many countries, drop small grenades that are built to destroy armored vehicles and troops in the open, but also often fail to immediately explode. Years or even decades later, they can kill adults and children who stumble on them. The Pentagon said the weapons they would send to Ukraine had a failure rate of 2.35 percent or less, far better than the usual rate that is common for cluster weapons. But the Pentagon’s own statements indicate that the cluster munitions in question contain older grenades known to have a failure rate of 14 percent or more.

Organizations: White, Pentagon Locations: Ukraine

In a sealed room behind a gantlet of armed guards and three rows of high barbed wire at the Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado, a team of robotic arms was busily disassembling some of the last of the United States’ vast and ghastly stockpile of chemical weapons. In went artillery shells filled with deadly mustard agent that the Army had been storing for more than 70 years. “That’s the sound of a chemical weapon dying,” said Kingston Reif, who spent years pushing for disarmament outside government and is now the deputy assistant secretary of defense for threat reduction and arms control. The depot near Pueblo destroyed its last weapon in June; the remaining handful at another depot in Kentucky will be destroyed in the next few days. And when they are gone, all of the world’s publicly declared chemical weapons will have been eliminated.

Persons: ”, Kingston Reif Organizations: Chemical, United, Army Locations: Colorado, United States, Pueblo, Kentucky

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