Putin: The F-16s can carry nuclear weapons but they won’t change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine
The Russian President Vladimir Putin was speaking to Russian air force pilots on Wednesday, as he said that if Western countries supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters, those planes won’t change the situation on the battlefield.
Putin said that the F-16s could carry nuclear weapons and Moscow would have to take this into account in its military planning.
Putin’s comments to the pilots during a meeting north of Moscow followed comments made earlier in the day by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in which he said the warplanes should arrive in Ukraine in the coming months.
The issue of Western allies supplying Kiev with American-made F-16 aircraft was a controversial issue during the past year, at a time when Kiev was facing great difficulties on various fronts in the face of Russian forces that were making continuous progress.