Russia warned on Monday (6) that the early arrival of F-16 fighters in Ukraine will be seen as a provocation by the United States and NATO, regardless of whether or not they are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
“Regardless of which modification of the aircraft is provided, we will view it as carrying nuclear weapons and consider this move by the US and NATO as a deliberate provocation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.
Moscow highlighted that these aircraft have been used in NATO’s so-called “joint nuclear missions” for many years.
“US-made F-16 multipurpose aircraft are expected to appear soon in the Ukrainian theater of operations (…), we cannot ignore the fact that these aircraft belong to dual equipment platforms: nuclear and non-nuclear,” added the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Ukraine has been insisting for weeks on the need to accelerate the supply of these aircraft in the face of continued enemy bombing of civilian infrastructure and its Army positions.
The coalition of Western countries that committed a year ago to supplying F-16s to Ukraine includes Denmark, which plans to send the first planes in the coming months, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.
Moscow condemned Western plans to increase its military support for Kiev and its alleged involvement in the fighting in Ukraine, creating new military threats around Russia.
In particular, it accuses the West of openly supporting Ukrainian sabotage actions on Russian territory, as well as supplying Kiev with long-range British and French missiles and the new US ATACMS, which can reach Russian territory.
Russia also accuses the US of moving forward with its plans to deploy short- and medium-range missiles “in different regions of the world” and says that when these weapons are actually deployed, it will respond by lifting its own moratorium on such deployment.
The country also denounces statements by French President Emmanuel Macron about the possible deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine and highlights alleged reports of the presence of French Foreign Legion troops there.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accuses the Western bloc of seeking “a further escalation of the Ukrainian crisis towards a direct military confrontation between NATO countries and Russia” in order to inflict “a strategic defeat” on Moscow.
All of this, according to Moscow, justifies Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s order for the Armed Forces to carry out maneuvers with tactical nuclear weapons “in the near future”.
These exercises, in which the Air Force and Navy will participate, could take place on Ukrainian territory, as the Southern Military District includes the four occupied Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia).
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