A Melting Glacier in Nepal Was a Time Bomb. There Are More to Come.

© Jason Gulley for The New York Times


© Jason Gulley for The New York Times


© Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times


Sweden will transfer 10 coast guard boats to Ukraine, the Swedish government announced on 27 August 2026. Stockholm will also direct additional funds to multilateral defense programs for Kyiv.
Russia's full-scale invasion added to some 13,500 km² of Ukraine's rivers, lakes, and Black Sea coastline now potentially contaminated with explosive remnants of war, in the world's most mined country, and emergency service divers had cleared 190 km² of it by November 2025. Allied nations have committed billions in military support to Kyiv since 2022, from fighter jets to anti-drone systems.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service will receive the work and high-speed vessels in their current condition, after the coast guard removes their markings and equipment. The agency will use them for waterborne rescue operations, including clearing mines from river channels.
Sweden's Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said Sweden is further strengthening Ukraine's maritime capabilities. He described towage, mine clearance, and transport as important capabilities that can now increase further. Sweden's Civil Defense Agency will handle transporting the boats to Ukraine.
The donation follows Sweden's broader naval support for Kyiv. In January 2025, Stockholm doubled its pledge of CB90 assault boats for Ukraine's navy to 32 and added 23 naval combat modules to arm them. The coast guard vessels serve a different purpose—rescue and utility work for a civilian agency, not combat operations.
Sweden will also channel 270 million Swedish kronor (about $28 million) to multilateral defense funds supporting Ukraine, mainly for air defense. Of that sum, $14 million goes to the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), to which Sweden contributed $108 million in June. Allies and partners fund high-priority American materiel through the US-led, NATO-administered program, and this package covers advanced air defense systems and ammunition for Kyiv.
The government said this marks Sweden's fifth PURL contribution. With the new payment, Stockholm's total PURL funding reaches $552 million.
In July, Sweden's defense minister confirmed Ukraine may use the Meteor missiles promised with its Gripen fighters against Russian aircraft over Russian territory.


Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to buy at least a million dollars worth of robots from Boston Dynamics, the company that makes the dog-like SPOT robots, with the purpose of improving “officer safety,” according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement.
The news shows that ICE continues to spend millions of dollars on new technology. On Thursday, U.S. procurement records showed that ICE has contracted to buy 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves for $16.7 million, the Associated Press reported.


© Philip Lindeman