Russia’s foreign minister warned on Thursday that Russia is likely to view the presence of F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine as a nuclear threat by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
“We have informed the nuclear powers of the United States, the United Kingdom and France that Russia cannot ignore the fact that these aircraft can carry nuclear weapons. There are no guarantees that this will help,” said Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with the daily Lenta.ru.
Lavrov warned that during the war, the Russian military will not determine whether or not every F-16 aircraft is equipped to carry nuclear weapons.
“The very fact that such systems exist in the Ukrainian armed forces will be considered by us as a threat from the West in the nuclear field,” the minister stressed.
Eleven Ukrainian partner countries signed a memorandum on Tuesday setting out the conditions for training Ukrainian pilots in F-16 fighters.
“The F-16s will protect the airspace of Ukraine and the eastern flank of NATO. The Ukrainian air force is ready to dominate them as soon as possible,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksy Reznikov.
The training, which will last six to eight months, will begin in late summer – August or early September – and the first Western F-16 fighter jets will be delivered to Kiev by the end of the first quarter of 2024, the foreign minister said. . Ukrainian.
Source: DN
