Russian forces will introduce new methods of warfare to better adapt to modern conditions of armed confrontation, the country's defense minister said.
Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu said the implementation of new methods was aimed at improving the Russian army and navy and providing them with advanced equipment.
"The introduction of new methods of warfare will make it possible to better adapt the troops to the modern conditions of armed confrontation," Shoigu said at a defense ministry administrative meeting, state-owned news organization Zvezda reported.
Shoigu added that the Russian armed forces were implementing the new methods to target Ukraine's Donbas region.
The defense minister also said that the United States and other Western countries were doing everything to drag out Russia's military operation in Ukraine.
"The increasing volume of foreign arms supplies clearly demonstrates their intentions to provoke the Kyiv regime to fight to the last Ukrainian standing," Shoigu was cited as saying.
Shoigu's comments came after reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had sidelined the 66-year-old defense minister over failures in Ukraine, the Daily Mail reported.
Other reports said Shoigu had suffered a "massive heart attack," while others claimed Putin ordered him to operate from a nuclear bunker in the Ural Mountains, the Daily Mail said.
The Kremlin said last month that Shoigu's absence from public appearances was because he was preoccupied with his duties and had no time for media activity, U.S. News & World Report said.
Gen. Vadym Skibitskiy, head of Ukraine's Military Intelligence Directorate, in an exclusive interview with Newsmax, said Monday that while there is no evidence Russia's use of a nuclear device was imminent, the threat remains real.
"Let's keep in mind that the Russian navy has up to 10 different types of missile carriers in the Black Sea, capable of launching hypersonic and nuclear missiles and other forms of weaponry," Skibitskiy told Newsmax's John Huddy in the interview, conducted through a translator and in a secret location outside Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv.
"They are able to launch up to 40 missiles and have the use of all of the waters of the Black Sea to do so," the general added. "For now, we do not see any such activity taking place at the moment to stage a nuclear attack."
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