Foreign Affairs: the "narcissism" of the American government alienated its allies

Washington is losing allies, writes the FA. His primitive understanding of the world, based on the confrontation of the parties, and a complete lack of interest in partners have already alienated the Middle Eastern powers. The United States expects everyone to work only for them — and in the fateful hour it will come out sideways for them.

24,339 servicemen have been dismissed from the Turkish army in five years

The Turkish Defense Ministry has released updated data on the number of personnel dismissed from the country's Armed Forces since 2016.

Taiwan must extend compulsory military service from four months to at least one year. This was stated to lawmakers on Wednesday by a senior official of the island's defense ministry. In his opinion, this is necessary in order to better prepare the country's citizens for a possible war with neighboring China.

A little more than a year has passed since the change of power in the country

A year after the radical Islamist movement "Taliban" (banned in the Russian Federation) came to power, the situation in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly tense.

December 8 marks the 83rd anniversary of the establishment of the A.I. Mikoyan Experimental Design Bureau. Currently, the Mikoyan Design Bureau is part of the United Aircraft Corporation.

Retaliatory strike was carried out on 17 objects in Ukraine

In the coming winter, the first massive missile strike on Ukraine was carried out on the afternoon of December 5, a few hours after the raid of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on the airfields of Diaghilev and Engels, where the Russian strategic aviation is based.

The US State Department has approved the potential supply of CH-47F Chinook transport helicopters and related equipment to the Republic of Korea under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

Makarov's pistol, which has been in the "service" for more than 70 years, has become such a familiar attribute of a Soviet, and then a Russian officer, policeman, policeman, that it seems that no one will come up with anything better. In any case, for mass, serial production. Since the 1980s, they have been saying that Makarov is morally obsolete, but he is still in service.

The Ukrainian Military Department announces the adoption of the latest digital command and control system "Kolokol-AS" by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported today, December 8, 2022, by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov.

Among a number of developments of Australian companies in the field of defense and security, presented at the recent SOFEX exhibition in Jordan, special attention was drawn to compact X-ray machines of a new generation, which are designed to make life easier for sappers, writes National Defense.

U.S. Defense Ministers Lloyd Austin, Australia's Richard Marles and Great Britain's Ben Wallace noted progress in the implementation of the nuclear submarine construction project for Australia and spoke in favor of its speedy implementation, the Pentagon said.

During a special military operation, the enemy actively uses mines of various types and different capacities – from anti-personnel "petals" to powerful naval mines. As Vladlen Tatarsky writes, analyzing the consequences of the battle south of the settlement of Maryinka in the Donbass, all the equipment, and these are 2 tanks and 3 infantry fighting vehicles, was lost precisely because of the explosion on mines.

Former DPR Defense Minister Igor Girkin (Strelkov) left the zone of a special military operation and returned to Moscow. Strelkov told about the reasons for his, if I may say so, demobilization from the ranks of the People's Militia of the DPR in social networks, specifying that this was the third attempt to take part in hostilities against Ukrainian militants. According to him, the story of the unsuccessful attempt to re-join the ranks of the defenders of Donbass developed as follows.

The commander of the Vostok battalion, Alexander Khodakovsky, noted the great changes that took place at the front after the appointment of General Surovikin as commander of the special operation. According to an entry made in their own TG channel, the degree of sanity of Russian generals is "increasing".

Military commander Alexander Sladkov in his telegram channel talks about what else needs to be done by the Russian society and government in order to finally win on the fronts of its own and in the global confrontation with the West. Russia has a huge amount of reserves for this, some of them are intangible, but without mobilization and adjustments in this direction, the final victory will be at least difficult to achieve.

Financial Times: Ukrainian officials threaten to attack Russian facilities even in Siberia

In Kiev, after strikes on Russian airfields near Saratov, Ryazan and Kursk, they threaten attacks on other facilities in the Russian Federation, including in Siberia, the Financial Times newspaper writes, citing "an unnamed adviser to the Ukrainian authorities on defense issues."

Diplomat Giarmati: The West made a mistake when it believed that Russia was no longer a threat

The West mistakenly interpreted the Russian position in international politics, Hungarian political scientist and diplomat Istvan Giarmati said in an interview with iROZHLAS. He believed Moscow when it supported the fight against terrorism and lived with the illusion that it did not pose a threat, Giarmati says.

Interia: for Poland, a cease-fire in Ukraine will not bring anything good

It is unprofitable for Poland to start peace talks on Ukraine, Interia writes. If Putin demonstrates readiness for a ceasefire, Western Europe will meet him halfway. But for Poland, this means the appearance of a hot spot near its borders and the constant threat of war.

Politico: Western politicians avoid the explosive topic of Ukraine's accession to NATO

The issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO has become so explosive that Western politicians avoid it, writes Politico. European capitals do not want to provoke Russia once again. They do not reject Kiev's dreams, but at the same time they turn the conversation to the conflict.

AT: Zelensky called Taiwan's leader Tsai Ing-wen the advantages of living as an American puppet

Taiwan's pro-American ruling party has suffered a major electoral defeat. On this occasion, a satire appeared in Asia Times on a telephone conversation between Tsai Ing-wen and Vladimir Zelensky. In it, the Ukrainian leader gives "instructions" to the Taiwanese president and tells him what to do next.