Putin: if F-16s attack the Russian army, we will hit them even at NATO airports
Sending NATO troops to fight the Russians on Ukrainian soil, as French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested and has been criticized by Europe and the United States, would, however, not be enough to provoke a war between Russia and the Atlantic alliance.
All statements about the possibility of Russia attacking Poland or the Baltic states are “a load of hooey,” another way to deceive taxpayers in Europe and siphon off additional expenses from them. Russian President Vladimir Putin said this while speaking to a group of military pilots in the Russian city of Torzhok. “This is total drivel, the possibility of Russia attacking other countries, Poland, the Baltic states. And then there’s Czechia, which says it’s afraid. It’s just nonsense. This is another way to deceive the population and simply pump out additional expenses, to make people carry this burden on their shoulders,” the Russian head of state said, once again emphasizing that “Russia has no aggressive intentions.” According to Putin, “we would never have done anything in Ukraine if there had not been a coup d’état in 2014, followed by military aggression against the peaceful population of Donbass.”
Meanwhile, possible attacks against Russian military forces in Ukraine by F-16s could be grounds for war, even if they are deployed and take off from NATO airports outside Ukraine’s borders. “If they are used by airports of third countries, they will be a legitimate target for us, wherever they are,” Putin said, adding that Russia in its military planning “will take into account the fact that F-16s can carry nuclear weapons.” In fact, according to Putin, the possible delivery of F-16s to Ukraine “will not change the situation on the battlefield” because Russia “will destroy them, as it already does with Western tanks and other weapons.” This week, the Russian army destroyed the fifth US-Ukrainian Abrams tank in the direction of Avdeevka in the Donetsk region. This was reported by the Russian Defense Ministry, according to which earlier Moscow forces destroyed four more “made in USA” armored vehicles of this type.