"All the buzz created by Western media around the "Zapad-2017" drills is just a cover for the increased activity of NATO forces near Russian and Belarusian borders," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said.
According to the minister, NATO was developing ways of using nuclear weapons.
The statement of the top official comes amid the recent decision of the NATO defense ministers to establish two more commands, thus improving troop movement in Europe.
The Russian and Belarusian officials have repeatedly refuted the allegations, saying that the planned drills were purely defensive and posed no threat to Eastern European states. In addition, Russia and Belarus invited NATO experts and foreign journalists to observe the drills.
READ MORE: Pentagon 'Closely' Watching Massive Russia-Belarus Zapad-2017 War Games
When commenting on the NATO member-states' reaction to the planned drills, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the increasing military presence of NATO in Eastern Europe went unnoticed amid groundless criticism of the Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2017 military exercises.
NATO has been significantly boosting its military presence near Russia's borders since 2014 under the pretext of an alleged "threat" that Moscow poses to the eastern members of the alliance in the wake of Ukraine's internal conflict, a claim repeatedly denied by the Russian Foreign Ministry that has on more thanone occasion voiced its protest against NATO's military buildup, saying that it would undermine regional stability and result in a new arms race.
