GEN. MARK A. WELSH

The Navy has stood up Navy Recruiting Reserve Command, a move that comes as the armed services struggle with recruiting numbers this fiscal year.

The objective is to provide the service with a unit specifically targeting sailors and others who’ve previously served. The command is primarily composed of canvassing recruiter professionals to educate others — including active duty sailors, veterans and civilians— about the Navy Reserve, according to the service.

A Ukrainian soldier helps a wounded comrade as troops move down a road in the Kharkiv region. Photograph: Kostiantyn Liberov/AP
Dan Sabbagh, Martin Belam and Guardian staff
Tue 13 Sep 2022 11.15 BST
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said his country’s forces had taken back 6,000 sq km (2,400 square miles) of Russian-held territory in the country’s south and east. Ukraine’s forces have continued to press their counterattack in Kharkiv, seeking to take control of almost all of the province. Ukraine’s troops headed north, reportedly recapturing towns all the way to the Russian border.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said fighting is still raging in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region. Hanna Malyar said: “The aim is to liberate the Kharkiv region and beyond – all the territories occupied by the Russian Federation. Fighting is continuing. It is still early to say full control has been established over Kharkiv region. Our strength stems from the fact that we are very motivated and that we plan operations thoroughly.”
The Ukrainian military says it had freed more than 20 settlements in 24 hours. In recent days, Kyiv’s forces have captured territory at least twice the size of greater London, according to the British Ministry of Defence.
Ukraine’s military says the Antonivsky Bridge across the Dnieper River near occupied Kherson in the south is now unusable by Russian military
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said Ukrainian forces had made important progress in their counteroffensive against Russian troops, although it was too early to predict the outcome. “Clearly we’ve seen significant progress by the Ukrainians, particularly in the north-east, and that is a product of the support we’ve provided, but first and foremost it’s a product of the extraordinary courage and resilience of the Ukrainian armed forces and the Ukrainian people,” Blinken told reporters in Mexico City.
Ukraine’s State Border Service has issued a video which purports to show soldiers tearing down Russian banners and burning the Russian flag in Vovchansk, which is in the north of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and very close to the border with Russia.
Russia’s military commanders have stopped sending new units into Ukraine after the counteroffensive, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said on its page on Monday. “The current situation in the theatre of operations and distrust of the higher command forced a large number of volunteers to categorically refuse the prospect of service in combat conditions.”

Even if Bakhmut were to fall, it would not have a strategic impact on the overall war,” Kirby said. “I would go so far as to say it won't even have, necessarily, a strategic impact on the fighting in that part of the country. We think one of the reasons why Prigozhin is so interested in Bakhmut is because there's a gypsum mine there, and up in Soledar, there's a salt mine. And it's entirely possible that Mr. Prigozhin sees some economic benefit to him and his company to take Bakhmut and to take and hold Soledar.”

Ukraine's outgoing defence minister has said the country is anticipating a new Russian offensive later this month.

At a news conference, Oleksiy Reznikov said not all Western weaponry will have arrived by then, but Ukraine had enough reserves to hold off Russian forces.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said troops were fighting fiercely in Bakhmut, Vuhledar and Lyman.

Russian soldiers are dying in greater numbers in Ukraine this month than at any time since the first week of the invasion, according to Ukrainian data.

The Ukrainian data shows 824 Russian soldiers dying per day in February.

The figures were highlighted by the UK's Ministry of Defence. The figures cannot be verified - but the UK says the trends are "likely accurate".

The increase comes as Ukrainian officials say that Russia has launched a "big offensive".

BOISE, Idaho - Idaho National Guard Soldiers, Airmen and their active-duty counterparts joined forces for a mass casualty exercise Feb. 4 near Gowen Field.

“The best way to grow our mindset of becoming more operational and ready for a deployed environment is to train with the nearby resources, such as the Idaho Army National Guard and our active-duty counterparts,” said Senior Master Sgt. Virginia Holmgren, a respiratory therapist from the Idaho Air National Guard’s 124th Medical Group. “Forming relationships with the other branches helps us to become familiar with each other’s capabilities and to practice working together because when we are in a deployed environment, we will be working with the other branches in the fight.”

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III and his wife Betty visited the Arizona Air National Guard's 161st Air Refueling Wing here March 22 to discuss the future of the Air Force, meet Airmen and their families, and thank them for their service.

We have looked hard at every piece of our force structure and determined how much we can move into the Reserve component. If we can be more efficient and stay operationally capable and credible moving to the Reserve component, why wouldn’t we? We’ve also looked at a lot of other integration activities. Right now we have a beta test going with a single personnel office at three different bases: Pease [National Guard Base], Peterson [Active AF Base], and March [Reserve Base]—one Guard, one Active, one Reserve, and a single personnel office manages all three components. We call it the “three in one initiative.” If it works, we’ll spread it to other bases where we have all three components.

780th Test Squadron member Dale Julio briefs General Welsh and General Janet Wolfenbarger, Air Force Materiel Command commander, about Small Diameter Bomb II test progress and findings at Eglin Air Force Base (U.S. Air Force/Samuel King, Jr.)

I’ll give you some examples of the change in approach to sexual assault. Over the last year our reporting is up 76 percent inside the Air Force, and it’s about 60 percent across the Department of Defense. Conviction rates are up. Prosecution rates are up. People in the Air Force—commanders and senior noncommissioned officers—can talk to you knowledgeably about this now. They now know a lot more than they did before. They understand victim behavior better—not well enough, but better. Before we started the Special Victim Counsel program, 13 percent of the victims who reported under the Restricted Reporting program, which meant we couldn’t investigate, would change to Unrestricted Reporting and allow us to investigate. Of those who now have Special Victims Counsels assigned to them, 50 percent are changing to Unrestricted Reporting so we can press forward with investigations and prosecutions.