Russia has no pretensions to any NATO country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic countries or the Czech Republic, but if the West supplies Ukraine with F-16 fighters, Russian forces will shoot them down, Russian President Vladimir Putin said late Wednesday.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered the deepest crisis in Russian-Western relations since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Addressing Russian air force pilots, Putin said that since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US-led military alliance has expanded eastward toward Russia, but that Moscow has no plans to attack any NATO countries.
“We have no intention of aggression towards those countries,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript released Thursday.
“Poland, the Baltic countries, and the Czechs are in fear, but the idea that we will attack another country is complete nonsense. It is foolishness,” he added.
The Kremlin, which accuses the US of fighting Russia by propping up Ukraine with money, weapons and intelligence, says relations with Washington have probably never been worse.
When asked about the F-16 fighters that the West promised to send to Ukraine, Putin said that such aircraft will not change the situation in Ukraine.
“Although they deliver F-16s, and talk about it and supposedly train pilots, it will not change the situation on the battlefield,” Putin said.
“We will destroy those planes as we destroy tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment today, including multiple rocket launchers.”
Putin said the F-16 could also carry nuclear weapons.
“Of course, if they are used from airports in third countries, they become legitimate targets for us, wherever they are,” Putin said.
Putin’s remarks followed Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s comments earlier on Wednesday that the F-16s should arrive in Ukraine in the coming months.
Ukraine, now more than two years into an intense war with Russia, has been seeking F-16s for months.
Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands are among the countries that have pledged to donate F-16s. A coalition of countries has pledged to help train Ukrainian pilots to use them, Hina news agency writes.
