At a meeting with Russian air force pilots, Putin said the US-led Western military alliance had expanded eastward into Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but that Moscow had no plans to attack a NATO state.
“We have no aggressive intentions towards these states,” Putin said, according to a transcript published by the Kremlin on Thursday.
“The idea that we are going to attack another country – Poland, the Baltic states and the Czechs are also scared – is complete nonsense. It’s just nonsense,” insisted the Russian president.
Asked about the F-16 planes that the West promised to send to Ukraine, Putin said that such aircraft will not change the situation in Ukraine.
“If they’re delivering the F-16, and they’re talking about it, and apparently they’re training pilots, that’s not going to change the situation on the battlefield. We will destroy the aircraft just as we destroy today the tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, including multiple rocket launchers,” added Putin.
Putin specified that the F-16s “are also carriers of nuclear weapons, and we will have to take this into account when organizing combat work.”
Of course, if they are used from airfields in third countries, they will become legitimate targets for us, wherever they are.
Vladimir Putin:
Putin’s remarks came after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Wednesday morning that the planes would arrive in Ukraine in the middle of this summer.
Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands are among the countries that have pledged to donate F-16s. A coalition of countries, including Romania, has promised to help train Ukrainian pilots to use them.
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