Putin tells Russian pilots: F-16s can carry nuclear weapons, but they won’t change things in Ukraine

If Western countries supply Ukraine with F16 fighter jets, “they will not change the situation on the battlefield,” President Vladimir Putin told military pilots on Wednesday, according to Russian news agencies cited by Reuters.

But fighter jets, he also said, can carry nuclear weapons, and Moscow will have to factor that into its military planning.

Putin’s comments, made to Russian pilots at a meeting north of Moscow, followed comments made earlier in the day by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that the planes should arrive in Ukraine in the coming months.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again called on his country’s Western allies on Wednesday to “accelerate the delivery” of F-16 fighter jets and transfer more Patriot air defense systems after a deadly Russian strike in Kharkiv, the second city to size of Ukraine.

“Strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses and accelerating the delivery of F-16s to Ukraine are vital missions,” he wrote in a social media post. “There is no rational justification to explain why Patriot, of which there are many in the world, still do not cover the skies of Kharkiv and other cities attacked by Russian terrorists,” Zelensky added.