Russian President Vladimir Putin says his forces will shoot down any Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets given to Ukraine, claiming that the nuclear-capable aircraft wouldn’t change the situation on the battlefield.
Speaking to Russian air force pilots late Wednesday, Putin said Moscow has no intention of attacking any countries in NATO but that F-16s could be targeted wherever they’re located if they’re being used against Russian forces. “Of course, if they will be used from airfields in third countries, they become for us legitimate targets, wherever they might be located,” Putin said, according to Reuters.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said F-16s were on schedule to be in the skies over Ukraine by mid-summer. He added that “pilot training is going well” but acknowledged that much more training for both pilots and engineers would be required “because the transition from Soviet-type aircraft to Western-type aircraft... requires major changes in everything.”
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Kyiv has been asking for the fighter jets for months, with countries including Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands agreeing to donate their F-16s to Ukraine. The Pentagon in August announced that the U.S. would start training Ukrainian pilots on the American-made aircraft in Arizona, part of a larger international training program run alongside European allies. The decision came after President Joe Biden had publicly said he did not think Ukraine needed F-16s earlier in the year.
“If they supply F-16s, and they are talking about this and are apparently training pilots, this will not change the situation on the battlefield,” Putin said Wednesday. “And we will destroy the aircraft just as today we destroy tanks, armored vehicles, and other equipment, including multiple rocket launchers,” he added.
Putin also claimed Russia has “no aggressive intentions” toward NATO states. “The idea that we will attack some other country—Poland, the Baltic States, and the Czechs are also being scared—is complete nonsense,” he said. “It’s just drivel.”
