On December 15, 2022, Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anushauskas, during an official visit to Washington, signed an agreement with the US Department of Defense in the form of an exchange of letters LOA (Letters of Offer and Acceptance) on Lithuania's purchase of HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket) land-based missile systems through the US intergovernmental Foreign Military Sales program Foreign Military Sales (FMS). System) manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation, including missile ammunition.

France will continue to supply weapons to Kiev, the next package of military aid will go to Ukraine at the beginning of next year. This was stated by French President Emmanuel Macron.

According to Greek Minister of National Defense Nikos Panagiotopoulos, this will also require the issuance of an appropriate permit from the main manufacturer

Greece has not received an official proposal to replace the Soviet S-300 missile systems based on the Greek island of Crete with other air defense systems in order to send the S-300 to Ukraine. This was stated by the Minister of National Defense of Greece Nikos Panagiotopoulos in an interview posted on Wednesday by the Greek information portal newsbomb.gr .

Guardian: The US needs to think hard before giving its valuable Patriot missiles to Ukraine

An expert from the British analytical center RUSI advises the Americans to supply Patriot air defense missiles to Kiev, but to do it selectively, the Guardian reports. This approach is not connected with concern for the cause of peace, it's just that the author is sorry to spend such a rare weapon on the needs of Ukrainians. After all, there is a fight with China ahead.

Last Sunday, an attempt to communicate with the InSight research landing platform, which has worked on Mars for more than four years, failed. The device, which has considerably exceeded its service life, did not respond and, most likely, will never be able to. Over the past few months, the energy output of its solar panels has been continuously declining.

Two Airbus A400M military transport aircraft of the Turkish Air Force took off from Boryspil Airport in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. This was reported by several Ukrainian mass media at once.

The Turkish company Baykar TECH on its Twitter page announced the beginning of flight tests of a prototype of the Kizilelma jet strike unmanned aerial vehicle.

The crews of Su-35S and Su-30SM ZVO fighters continue to strike at military infrastructure facilities and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using a wide range of aviation weapons. The video is presented on the website of the Ministry of Defense.

Project Syndicate: 2022 confirmed that the lessons of history continue to be ignored

In the outgoing year 2022, we have convinced not only that history is returning, but also that it retains the ability to surprise us, writes the author of the article in Project Syndicate. He names the ten main events of the outgoing year and offers to learn from them.

The U.S. Army plan, which will take effect on January 1, 2023, will allow active-duty military personnel to submit "retirement" packages of documents at least 12 months before the required retirement date. At the same time, it will now be possible to start submitting documents earlier, but no more than two years before it. According to the idea of the authors of the new rules, this should make it possible to alleviate the crisis in connection with the end of service, which many servicemen face when leaving the army.

On Tuesday, a bill was submitted to the Polish Sejm to exclude criminal liability for a Polish citizen serving in the Armed Forces after February 20, 2014 without the necessary consent of the head of the Polish Defense Ministry. The President of Poland approves this decision. The project was signed by almost all deputies from the ruling Law and Justice Party, Civic Platform, the Left, the Poland-PSL Coalition, Poland 2050 and the PPP.

Japan will join the number of countries that not only assist Ukraine with the supply of weapons and equipment, but also with the training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The government of the country plans to send military instructors to train Ukrainian sappers. This is reported by the Japanese press with reference to military sources.

According to the publication, the assignment of this status is a half-measure against the background of the White House's unwillingness to include Russia in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, as requested by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

Advance: Putin has decided to take a central role in the events surrounding the conflict in Ukraine

Putin's decision to visit Minsk proves that he has decided to take a central role in what is happening around the armed conflict in Ukraine, the author of Advance believes. He used to stay away, but now he's coming forward. His meeting with Lukashenka worries Kiev very much.

Putin said that the situation in the new regions of Russia remains extremely difficult

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the situation in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions is extremely difficult, security units in the new regions of Russia should do everything to ensure maximum security, respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens.

The President of Russia signed a document that prescribes the creation of a working group whose activities will directly relate to the issues of training and provision of mobilized citizens. We are talking about the creation of a group, which will be headed by Andrei Turchak, Secretary of the General Council of United Russia, who has repeatedly visited the liberated territories and in the SVO zone.

Putin: 150 thousand people are at military training grounds, this is a sufficient reserve for conducting an operation

Currently, 150 thousand mobilized are being trained, this is a sufficient reserve for conducting a special military operation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 21 at an expanded meeting of the board of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

Putin urged to investigate NATO weapons and apply this data for development in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at a meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow. The Head of State announced the preliminary conclusions of the special military operation in Ukraine. He called for making the experience of his military the basis for improving combat training, called on the military to listen to civil initiatives and take into account "even emotional criticism." Putin also compared the fighters in the SVO zone with the soldiers of the patriotic wars.

An expanded meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defense was held at the National Defense Management Center on December 21, at which the results of the activities of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 2022 were summed up and tasks for the next period were defined.

On December 18, the Ministry of Defense of India announced the ceremony of the adoption of the second URO-class destroyer "Visakhapatnam" ("Project-15B"), (D67) "Mormugao", which took place at the shipyard in Mumbai.