Ukraine military highly likely to launch an attempt to retake Artyomovsk

A western-led undeclared war is being waged against Moscow and Minsk, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Viktor Khrenin, on Thursday.‘Today, we are being confronted by the collective west, which, in effect, is waging an undeclared war on our countries,’ Shoigu said.Extra troops and military infrastructure are being deployed there, and combat training and reconnaissance activities have intensified near the border of the (Russia-Belarus) Union State,’ Shoigu said.The North Atlantic Alliance is using the Ukrainian crisis as a pretext for building up its groups in Eastern and Central Europe, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday.

‘Military infrastructure is being modernised in Eastern and Central Europe, strike weapons are being deployed, and the scale and intensity of joint exercises are increasing,’ Shoigu said at a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) Council of Defence Ministers.Another alarming aspect, Shoigu said, is ‘the growing aggressive rhetoric and joint “nuclear missions” by NATO countries in Eastern Europe for practising the use of nuclear weapons delivery systems, as well as the upgrading of the components of the US global missile defence system.