Russia will view the deployment of F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine as a direct nuclear threat to the Kremlin, Putin’s foreign minister warned.
Sergei Lavrov says Russia has privately warned the US, Britain and France about the grave risks of the planned move to give Kiev the advanced warplanes.
He suggested that the use of F-16s – for which Ukrainian pilots are now being trained – could lead to Putin unleashing tactical nuclear weapons.
He said the move was just one example of an extremely dangerous state of affairs, namely the United States’ plans to hand over F-16 fighter jets to the Kiev regime.
“We have informed the nuclear powers, the United States, Britain and France, that Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons. No guarantee helps here.”
The Lavrov warning comes despite the West denying it will supply nuclear weapons to Ukraine.
Lavrov said, “During combat operations, our military is not going to find out whether any particular aircraft of this type is equipped to fire nuclear weapons or not.
“We consider the mere fact that the Ukrainian armed forces have such systems to be a threat from the West in the nuclear field.”
He warned: “The United States and its NATO satellites are creating the risk of a direct armed conflict with Russia, with catastrophic consequences.”
The ultra-loyalist chief diplomat said: “The conditions for the use of nuclear weapons by Russia are clearly defined in our military doctrine.
“They are known and I will not repeat them again.”
The US and its allies could deliver the F-16 jets to Ukraine in the coming months.
The foreign minister claimed that NATO – which concluded its summit in Vilnius on Wednesday – is “consistently lowering the threshold for using force and building nuclear capability in military planning.”
He claimed in an interview with Lenta that “the organization has completely reverted to Cold War plans…based on the ideology…that divides the world into democracies and autocracies.”
Yesterday he reportedly said Russia would protect its own “legitimate security interests” as world leaders met in Vilnius for the first day of the NATO summit.
He added that Russia was taking “appropriate” measures in response to the possible entry of Sweden and Ukraine into NATO.
Throughout the war, Russian allies have increased rhetoric about nuclear deterrence, threatening the West with an apocalyptic response to what they perceive as escalation.
In May, another of Putin’s top ally warned that a “nuclear apocalypse” will become more likely if the West continues to supply Ukraine with increasingly powerful weapons.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made the chilling remark after US President Joe Biden said he would support a concerted effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets.
“The more weapons are supplied, the more dangerous the world becomes. And the more destructive these weapons are, the more likely the scenario of what is commonly referred to as a nuclear apocalypse becomes,” Medvedev said.
