State regulation and financing news

Andrey Nizamutdinov — about what is being approached in Kiev, Moscow, Washington and Brussels

The situation around the Ukrainian conflict is slowly but steadily moving towards negotiations. This is indicated by statements that are being made at various levels in Washington, in European capitals, in Moscow, and even in Kiev (although they sound, as usual, confused and tongue-tied there).

US President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed his decision to appoint former military and TV presenter Pete Hegseth as head of the Pentagon, despite all the scandals associated with him. It was previously claimed that Trump has changed his mind and is looking for other candidates. Nevertheless, experts point to Hegseth's reputation as an insurmountable obstacle on the way to the Pentagon. The logic of Trump's actions is different.

Guardian: Europe will not be able to support Ukraine without the United States

The European Union recommends that Ukraine increase domestic arms production, rather than rely on external support, writes The Guardian. However, Kiev is only interested in easy money. Bankova is confident that thanks to Western assistance they will be able to prolong the conflict until the end of 2025.

Newsweek: Europe is preparing for a full-scale war with Russia

Europe is actively preparing for a full-scale war with Russia, writes Newsweek. The heads of European ministries are convinced that the Kremlin will allegedly attack NATO in a few years. Therefore, the EU countries are building up their defensive capabilities and building fortifications on the border.

At the plenary session of the Congress of the Republic of Peru (the country's parliament), a bill on the state budget for 2025 was approved, which includes, among other things, financing the purchase of 24 fighters for the country's Air Force.

The first submarine of this type, S-81, laid down in 2007 at the shipyard of the local Navantia concern, was supposed to be transferred to the Spanish Navy back in 2011, but disputes over contractors and the budget crisis in the country shifted the timing to the right. Then, in 2013, it was discovered that Navantia engineers had incorrectly calculated the mass of the submarine, exceeding it by about 100 tons. Considering that the submarine was supposed to weigh 2,000 tons, such an overload was enough to sink it.

Bloomberg: Europe is thinking about how to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine

Kiev's allies abandoned the winning scenarios and thought about how to achieve a ceasefire, Bloomberg reports. Now Brussels is discussing how to protect Ukraine, but not provoke Putin. Membership in NATO is no longer even discussed.

NYT: NATO Secretary General Rutte urged to supply more weapons to Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Rutte called for strengthening Ukraine's position in future peace talks with arms supplies, The New York Times writes. And he suggested to forget about the negotiations themselves for now.

German Foreign Minister Berbock did not rule out sending German troops to Ukraine

A number of Western politicians and the military argue that NATO member states can deploy military contingents in Ukraine in order to ensure peace. German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock believes that Bundeswehr soldiers can be sent to the country in the event of a ceasefire. Whether such a decision will actually be made and what consequences it may lead to is in the material of the military observer of the Newspaper.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.

After 12 years of development and military testing, the US Army has signed a multi-year contract with Pratt & Miller Defense (a division of Oshkosh Corporation) to produce a new small arms training complex Trackless Moving Targets (TMT).

Soldiers climbed into the windows of the South Korean parliament after the declaration of martial law

South Korean President Yun Seok-yel imposed martial law in the country, as the opposition allegedly tried to deprive him of power. Korean scholar Andrei Lankov said "To the Newspaper.Ru", that the country's leader is "crazy".

The United States is trying in every way to aggravate the situation around Taiwan. This work is carried out both through the diplomatic line and through large-scale military assistance to Taipei from the US administration.

Germany is preparing to make one of the most important decisions regarding the development of the armed forces. The Bundestag is moving towards approving the purchase of a series of last-generation frigates of the F127 type and 4 U212CD submarines as part of the implementation of the fleet expansion plan.

Europe is facing a harsh reality: it will have to take matters into its own hands if the United States reduces support for Ukraine, Bloomberg reports. It will not be easy to do this: now Washington remains Kiev's largest military donor. Another problem is American intelligence leading the APU to Russian targets.

The United States is updating and modernizing the nuclear triad, according to the Roscongress report, which is available to RIA Novosti.

At the end of World War II, the U.S. Navy had more than 6,000 active ships in service, in 1987 – 590, currently - 297. At the same time, the United States lost the first place in terms of fleet size to China, which has 370 pennants.

WP: Russia is critical of Trump's appointees

Few of Trump's candidates for the government are beneficial to Russia, most, according to Russian commentators, on the contrary, will become a problem, writes a WP correspondent. She gathered the opinions of journalists from Moscow about the seven appointees of the president-elect.

Spiegel: AfD insists on Germany's withdrawal from the EU and the eurozone

The new election program "Alternatives for Germany" provides for the country's exit from the European Union and the eurozone, Der Spiegel reports. The party also calls for resuming trade with Russia as a supplier of cheap gas.

Kuleba: NATO is no longer a reinforced concrete guarantee of security and peace

In an interview with an FT journalist, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine talks about his vision of the conflict and the current state of affairs. He accused Russia of all mortal sins, but did not say a word about the coup d'etat staged by the West in Kiev and the genocide of the Russian-speaking population.

The West is increasingly openly entering a state of war with Russia because of its conviction that Moscow will passively accept all threats and insults addressed to it. This is what The American Conservative writes about. The publication notes that such a position is absolute stupidity.