WARSAW: Ukraine has offered to build a joint aerial defense shield with its allies to protect against threats from Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday, after a series of airspace incursions that caused alarm on NATO’s eastern flank.
NATO leaders have said that Russia has been testing the alliance’s readiness and resolve with airspace incursions in Poland and the Baltic states, and Kyiv says its experience in dealing with aerial threats would be valuable.
“Ukraine proposes to Poland and all our partners to build a joint, fully reliable shield against Russian aerial threats,” he said in an address to the Warsaw Security Forum delivered via video link.
“This is possible. Ukraine can counter all kinds of Russian drones and missiles and if we act together in the region we will have enough weapons and production capacity.”
Ukraine has already said that its troops and engineers will train their Polish counterparts on countering drones.
The topic of defense cooperation with Kyiv was high on the agenda as leaders gathered in Warsaw for the annual security forum.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the conference that “Europe’s and Ukraine’s defense industry must work together more closely and effectively.”
“The European Union must back this by providing a much more flexible regulatory framework for the defense industry in Europe.”
Following the Russian incursions into NATO airspace, countries on the alliance’s eastern flank have agreed on the need for a “drone wall” with advanced detection, tracking and interception capabilities.
However, Pistorius warned that establishing this would not be a quick process.
“We’re not talking about a concept that will be realized within the next three or four years,” he said. “We need to prioritize, and recognize that we require more capabilities and capacities than previously described.”
Ukraine’s Zelensky proposes joint aerial shield with allies
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Ukraine’s Zelensky proposes joint aerial shield with allies
- NATO leaders have said that Russia has been testing the alliance’s readiness and resolve
- A series of airspace incursions that caused alarm on NATO’s eastern flank
US immigration agents’ training ‘broken’: whistleblower
- The fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January reignited accusations that agents enforcing Trump’s militarized immigration operation are inexperienced
WASHINGTON: A former US immigration official said Monday that training for federal agents was “deficient, defective and broken,” adding to pressure on President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown.
Ryan Schwank resigned this month from his job teaching law at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) training academy in Glynco, Georgia, after he said he was instructed to teach new recruits to violate the US Constitution.
The fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January reignited accusations that agents enforcing Trump’s militarized immigration operation are inexperienced, undertrained and operating outside law enforcement norms.
The administration scaled back the deployment after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in broad daylight by officers sparked mass protests and widespread outrage.
Schwank told a forum hosted by congressional Democrats on Monday that he “received secretive orders to teach new cadets to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant.”
“Never in my career had I received such a blatantly unlawful order,” he said.
He said that ICE cut 240 hours from its 584-hour training program, curtailing subjects such as the US Constitution, lawful arrest, fire arms, the use of force and the limits of officers’ authority.
“The legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective and broken,” he said.
As a consequence, poorly trained, inexperienced armed officers were being sent to places like Minneapolis “with minimal supervision,” he said.
The lawyer’s comments coincide with the release of dozens of pages of internal ICE documents by Senate Democrats that suggest the Trump administration cut corners on training, the New York Times reported.
Schwank said he resigned on February 13 after more than four years working for ICE, and that he felt duty-bound to report inadequacies with the new training program.
