💢British Ministry of Defence: Elements of Russia's 1st Guards Tank Army (1 GTA) are likely deployed along the defensive line near the Luhansk Oblast town of Svatove. The supposedly elite 1 GTA took heavy casualties earlier in the war, including during the retreat from Kharkiv Oblast in September 2022. It has now likely been partially reinforced with mobilised reservists, although remaining well below its authorised strength of over 25,000 personnel. Russia has now completed almost continuous trench systems along the 60km between Svatove and the Russian border. Despite the length of these works, however, the depth of the defences remains unclear. The effectiveness of 1 GTA and other formations' defensive operations will largely depend upon the extent of mutually supporting, fall-back positions.

💢Taiwan says 16 Chinese military aircrafts violated Taiwan's airspace

💢British Ministry of Defence: For the first time in three weeks, there have been reports of attacks by Iranian-provided one-way attack (OWA) uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). These events remain to be verified, but it is likely that Russia exhausted its previous stock of several hundred Shahed-131s and 136s and has now received a resupply. On 6 December 2022, the Ukrainian General Staff reported shooting down 17 UAVs, including 14 Shahed-136s. On 7 December 2022, Ukrainian officials reported the use of Iranian-provided OWA UAVs targeting Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro oblasts. The last previously reported shooting down of Iranian Shahed-136s in Ukraine was on 17 November 2022. If verified, it is likely that Russia has recommenced attacks with newly delivered OWA UAV systems.

💢China and Saudi Arabia signed defense and strategic agreement. China will help Saudi Arabia in building missiles, nuclear power plants and laser defenses.

💢Japan intend to increase its defense spending by 1 trillion yen ($7.34 billion) to about 6.5 trillion yen in fiscal year 2023.

💢Stars and stripes: Ukraine war pushes Poland to train civilians as soldiers for a military mighty enough to challenge Russia

💢United States approved a plan to strengthen its military presence in the Baltic states. It envisages that US troops and military equipment units will be continuously present in Latvia on a rotating basis.

💢Ukrainian authorities say that about 50 percent of the country's vital infrastructure has been damaged and some have been completely destroyed.

💢Pentagon says that Russia is expanding and upgrading its nuclear arsenal

💢Putin says Russia may consider formally increasing possibility of preventive nuclear first strike to disarm opponents of its military doctrine

💢Germany intend to transfer 18 RCH-155 self-propelled artillery systems, 80 pickups, 7 trucks and 90 anti-missile equipment to Ukraine

💢British Ministry of Defence: Iran has become one of Russia's top military backers since Russia invaded Ukraine. Iran's support to the Russian military is likely to grow in the coming months: Russia is attempting to obtain more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles. In return Russia is highly likely offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their defence relationship. Russia has highly likely expended a large proportion of its stock of its own SS-26 Iskander short range ballistic missiles, which carry a 500kg warhead up to 500km. If Russia succeeds in bringing a large number of Iranian ballistic missiles into service, it will likely use them to continue and expand its campaign of strikes against Ukraine's critical national infrastructure.