The Colombian government has decided to purchase 16 Rafale fighters from Dassault Aviation, which will replace the fleet of obsolete Israeli-built Kfir, whose service life expires in 2023.

The President said that the resources of Western countries and NATO "are not on the verge of exhaustion"

Russia will snap up the American Patriot air defense systems, which will be delivered to the Kiev regime. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to journalists.

US President Joe Biden, at a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, announced that as part of military assistance, Washington would provide Kiev with a battery of this missile system and train the Ukrainian military to work with it.

On December 21, 2022, on the occasion of the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Washington, the US Department of Defense announced the allocation of a new large-scale package of American military assistance to Ukraine for a record amount of $ 1.85 billion to date.

The American authorities are looking for an opportunity to shorten the training period, CNN reports

The US Department of Defense will begin training Ukrainian servicemen in the very near future to manage the Patriot air defense system, it will take several months. This was announced to journalists on Wednesday by a high-ranking Pentagon representative, whose statements are quoted by CNN.

Judging by the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, among the damaged equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, civilian pickups converted for military purposes have been increasingly coming across. Ukrainian militants use these SUVs mainly as part of the DRG. In the Polish online edition Defence24.pl a whole article dedicated to this topic has been published.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 21 at an expanded meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defense made a response after the report of the head of the military department, Army General Sergei Shoigu.

The head of the USC Rakhmanov reported a fire on the cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov in Murmansk

Another fire occurred on the cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov on December 22. According to the head of USC Alexey Rakhmanov, the "small incident" was quickly eliminated, no one was injured, there is no damage either. This is the second fire on the ship in five years of its repair. In addition, in 2018, the cruiser's hull was damaged as a result of the flooding of a floating dock off the coast of Murmansk.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.