i believe we have now with us colonel cedric leighton, who has some additional perspective on this because just in the last week, colonel, north korea tested an icbm missile. typically, these tests are designed to demonstrate the current capabilities, but also to send a message about their posture. set the table for us. what is context here of how north korea is positioned -- feels about itself as it relates to the united states right now. >> yeah, good morning. i think north korea feels threatened and they lash out in various ways when they feel threatened or ignored. and i think we are seeing a bit of that right now. we have a u.s. nuclear submarine docked in the south korean port of busan. that's a unique situation, hasn't happened in 40 years. you have a situation where you have the possibility of them demonstrating power. we haven't seen a nuclear test in a long time as well. with their icbm launch, which you mentioned, that becomes a, now, test launch for them and is also a demonstration of power, and then this action on the dmz, that becomes a situation where they are lashing out, t

. >> joining us now cedric leighton.eek tell us about the key issues on the table. >> pamela, good morning. the big issue, of course, is the one that's kind of taking the air out of the room, is ukraine's path to membership. this is going to be the key thing that they're going to be discussing. are they going to actually make this work? then you have sweden's succession to nato, that's another country that is trying to enter the nato alliance for the first time in its history. and then, of course, the type of assistance that we will actually be providing to ukraine, whether the west provides certain weapons such as atakims and f-16s. over this you have the whole issue about the cluster munitions. >> colonel leighton, the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy told erin burnett in an exclusive interview giving ukraine an invitation would be a affect on the fighters. >> one of the key things that you actually have here is, you know, what do you do with the rest of the world and how are these particular issues going to be

colonel cedric leighton joining us. good morning, colonel.d on friday that none of the west has been helping in the counteroffensive. president zelenskyy seemingly blaming the west for having to wait for these weapons to begin the counteroffensive. what are your thoughts on why it's not going as well as hoped? >> well, good morning, amara. in many ways president zelenskyy is right. the way in which the counteroffensive was unveiled and the way it rippled out, it's pretty clear that, number one, there should have been more secrecy. all of it should have been done in a concert and synchronized fashion, and the fact that it wasn't really points to the late start and the fact that things are slow going. the ukrainians gave the russians six, seven months of extra time and used that time to dig in and the fact that they dug in, used mines, and in essence created this mine field off the portion of ukraine about the size of florida, that really creates a real problem for any advancing forces. the fact is the uukrainians havn able to hold off. >> how

. >>> cnn military analyst colonel cedric leighton joins us now. thank you so much for being with us. i want to talk to you about a key part of this report that says, look, this largely boils down to a failure to consider a worst case scenario. we all remember that terrorist attack in the final days of the withdrawal that killed 13 american service members and more than 70 afghans. shouldn't a focus on worst case scenarios be a vital part of planning for anything of this magnitude and complexity? >> absolutely, paula. there's no question about it. you know, it's -- a tragic mark on the administration and on the prior administration for not considering worst case scenarios. that's what planning is all about. you know, in the military and we should have the same situation in the state department. you should be planning for the worst possible outcome. you hope that that worst possible outcome doesn't take place, but in the afghan situation, it was really clear. we've had plenty of antecedents such as vietnam, the fall of saigon, which happened quickly

we have retired air force colonel cedric leighton joining us now. he's a cnn military analyst.ell us about this decision and why the u.s. decides it's worth it to send these to ukraine? >> one of the big questions, the russians are using these weapons all the time in ukraine. you can see from the video, these are one of the key weapons that the russians have used, but the ukrainians have also used, they've had stockpiles of this weapon quite some time. and the key thing to remember is, because of the shortages that the ukrainians are experiencing in the munitions that they currently have, they feel they need the cluster bombs in order to prosecute their counteroffensive. >> so is this weapon really a game-changer, this weapon? >> this weapon will definitely change things tactically on the battlefield become but it may not be a game-changer in the sense of actually being the win thing that you need in order to take everything to the next level. so, basically, what it's designed to do, of course, it's designed to go after conceconcentrate ed troop movements and areas. any informa

. >> colonel cedric leighton, thanks for being with us today. >>> coming up, controversy on capitol hillis about, but who republicans have decided to call as their key witness. >>> and the justice department is now stepping in. troubling reports about the treatment of migrants at the u.s.-mexico boarder. an allegation that texas troopers were told to push migrants back into the rio grand and also deny them water i in t scorching heat. we'll be right bacack. my frequent heartburn had me taking a antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartrn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, fozero heartburn.rs. it's not too late to show summer's who's boss. and wayfair's got just what you need. they have all the top grills and gear. with smoking fast shipping. and wayfair deals so epic... you'll feel like a big deal. yes! so get outdoorsy for way less at wayfair. ♪ wayfair, you've got just what i need ♪ for too long, big pharmaceutical companies have bought off politicians so they can get away with

let's break this down with military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton.o much for taking us through this here. what is the strategy here with russia's southern bombardment? >> one of the big things is really the port of odesa. when you look at what is happening in odesa, major ports here, odesa, up here in m mikolaiv, they're critical for exporting grain. what russia is trying to do, notice they have everything in red, that's russian-occupied territory. all the coastlines here. they want to make this coastline right here completely unusable for ukraine. that's the russian strategy, to prevent this kind of thing from happening and to also make sure that this route right here doesn't work no matter what -- no matter what actually is done, that they actually can cut this whether or not there's a grain deal. >> yeah. in a way they're saying why would we be making things easier for russia? they're not re-upping this grain deal that allowed safe passage to turkey of that grain. and now with the u.s. warning of these potential false flag attacks, what do you mak

cnn military analyst colonel cedric leighton joining us now.drone attacks. russia says it was launched by ukraine. if that is indeed true, i mean, this is happening inside russia's capital in moscow. how significant would that be if ukraine now does have the ability to reach deep inside russia, impacting ordinary russians? >> yeah, that's pretty significant. good morning you to. there are so many different aspects to this. the key thing i think is first of all the morale impact this could have on the russians. when we saw this tape coming in from moscow and you heard the people screaming, that, you know, is an indicator ity they weren't expecting it to happen and shows how significantly this can affect people psychologically, especially a civilian population. i think the ukrainians are trying not to hit civilian targets, but if their rockets and their drones are moved off course because of russian jamming, that could result in civilian targets being hit even inadvertently, that will have its own terror aspect to it. there is no question about i

investigative journalist whose site has been blocked in russia, along with the retired air force connel cedric leighton. and thanks so much to both of you. let me start where alex finished, the death of these two top russian commanders. so one on the battlefield, one on a jog. tell me the significance of this if you just take a step back, these both happening really essentially the same day. >> basically, erin, the big thing here -- >> okay, sorry, it sounds like it was just -- okay. all right, sorry. we've lost the colonel. i apologize. the commander shot while running, the russian submarine commander. the ukrainian defense intelligence agency puts that detailed statement out on telegram saying, the submariner was jogging around 6:00 a.m. he was shot seven times. as a result of the gunshot wounds, rzhitsky died on the spot. so that detail coming from the ukrainian defense agency. are they admitting they did it? >> yes, it looks like that. it looks like a direct message to the russian military that if you are in any capacity involved in supporting or participating directly as russian war in ukraine, yo

and cedric leighton, thank you, my friends. >>> we're going to continue to cover the breaking news of the peninsula, an american man is believed to be in north korean custody after crossing the border. stay with us, our reporters across the world are working to bring this information to you as soon as we have. "cnn news central" starts right now. >>> breaking news. a u.s. soldier detained by north korea. taken into custody right at the border. we are working our sources and have the latest from u.s. officials. >>> missiles rain down on the city of odesa. russia's response to ukraine's attack on a key bridge. for the first time in weeks, wagner mercenary troops are spotted after launching a serious challenge against russia's vladimir putin. we're live in ukraine with developments. >> the most important day of the classified documents case yet. and maybe the most important decision could be coming, when donald trump's trial will start, i'm kate bolduan with john berman and sara sidner, this is "cnn news central." >>> all right. the breaking news this morning. we learned just a short tim

. >> joining us now is cnn military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton. your thoughts on the ukrainians being able to train on these f-16 fighter jets it's significant. we've talked about this before. >> yes, we have, jim. it is extremely important. it should have happened months ago. the problem is that training for the f-16 is going to take a long time. when two ukrainian pilots came to arizona to take a look at f-16 training possibilities, the arizona air national guard actually assessed their capability to train, and they came up with a plan that would take about eight months to train them. these are experienced pilots. these aren't people that are walking off the street to become fighter pilots, which you really can't do. >> right. >> but the type of training that they said they could do is not really all-inclusive. it's not the kind of training that, for example, takes into account close air support requirements or suppression of enemy air defenses or things like that. and so it's not detailed enough. so the training is going to take longer than wha

and let's continue this conversation with cnn military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton. colonel, thank you so much for being here about us. how significant is it that westminster abbeyer er-- wagner forces are moving closer to the bored? >> it's significant. this is near the gap, and it's this area between lithuania, poland, and belarus that is a vulnerable point for the nato forces because it allows the russians, it's an area where the russians have transit rights or at least in the past had transit rights to take equipment and men into the enclave of russia that russia has had since basically the end of world war ii. and that area is one that the russians want to protect because that's where their baltic sea fleet is, if they want to also be able to project power into the baltic. so what they're trying to do is trying to make sure, the russians and the wagner group, trying to make sure they can maintain that connection to the group. if they can do that, then that, of course, puts forces at risk for nato. and also in addition to keeping maritime forces at risk, of cour