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Close Russian ally Belarus has launched an unannounced inspection of its troops’ combat readiness, Minsk officials said on Tuesday.
“The activities will be comprehensive in nature; troops will have to move to the designated areas as soon as possible, carry out their engineering equipment, organise protection and defence, and set up bridge crossings over the rivers Neman and Berezina,” the country’s defence ministry said.
It added that military equipment and personnel will be moved and movement along certain public roads would be restricted.
It comes after president Vladimir Putin’s traditional end-of-year press conference was cancelled over fears that the event would be hijacked by uncomfortable questions about the invasion of Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
There are increasing concerns about the prevalence of anti-war feeling in Russia, the MoD said in its latest intelligence update today.
Meanwhile on the war front, over 50 per cent of the Donetsk region has now been captured by Mr Putin’s forces, according to an update early this morning from a Russia-backed official in Ukraine’s east.
