Shoigu, who leads the Kremlin's security council, told Tass, "Amid increased conflict behavior and intensified geopolitical rivalry, global risks of a military confrontation between large players, including nuclear powers, are heightening," specifically identifying Western countries as major players.

Having barely settled back into the Oval Office since his second inauguration on Monday, the second term president Donald Trump has taken aim at a number of his pre-election promises

Europe’s military heavyweights have already said that meeting President Donald Trump’s potential challenge to spend up to 5% of their economic output on security would be challenging

As President Trump looks to fix the issues that irk him the most, the issue of NATO defense spending — one of his perennial bugbears — is returning to the fore.