Russia: West playing with fire
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the move will lead to 'an unacceptable escalation' of the conflict with Ukraine
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Russia issued a stern warning to the West on Sunday, saying that it is “playing with fire” by providing US-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
The remarks were made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview with a Russian TV that was posted on social media.
Calling the move "an unacceptable escalation" of the conflict, Sergei said, “It's playing with fire, without a doubt,” as he condemned the attempt to “weaken Russia” by “Washington, London and their satellites in the EU”.
Last week, the Biden administration announced that it is letting its allies in the EU export F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
On May 20, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that President Joe Biden "informed his G7 counterparts" of the decision at the bloc's summit in Japan.
He also said that Kyiv's pilots will be given training by the US troops on how to operate these jets.
He also indicated that any jets Ukraine received would only be used for defence purposes and that the US would neither enable nor support attacks on Russian territory.
"The Ukrainians have consistently indicated that they are prepared to follow through on that," he said.
The decision was hailed by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as the embattled country had long been lobbying the West to supply jets so that they can launch a counteroffensive against the Russian troops.
Zelensky had said the jets would "greatly enhance our army in the sky".
Countries who want to resell or re-export American military equipment need to first get prior permission from the US. Hence, this decision clears the way for other nations to send their existing stocks of F-16s to Ukraine.
Will the F-16s be a game-changer for Ukraine?
The Lockheed Martin-made F-16s are single-engine, multi-role jet aircraft. They can be used in air-to-air or ground-attack missions.
The US Air Force calls the F-16, which first flew in the 1970s, a “relatively low-cost, high-performance weapon system.”
Thousands of jets have been built over the decades, and hundreds have been exported around the world.
According to Flight Global’s World Air Forces directory, almost 2,200 F-16s are active worldwide this year, making it the single-most popular combat aircraft across the planet with 15 per cent of the world’s fleet.
CNN, quoting experts, reported that F-16s for Ukraine are expected to be older versions that have been in the fleets of US allies, especially those in Western Europe.
Ukraine had said that it requires about 200 F-16s, but so far it is unknown how many it will receive.
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