VIENNA, July 20. /TASS/. Russia will consider supplies of F-16 fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons to Ukraine as a nuclear threat from the West, Konstantin Gavrilov, who leads the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, said on Wednesday.
According to Gavrilov, Russia has already notified nuclear powers, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, that it cannot ignore the fact that F-16 fighter jets that can be potentially supplied to Ukraine are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
"In the course of combat operations, our military will not investigate whether or not each particular airplane is equipped to deliver nuclear warheads. We will consider the very fact of supplies of such systems to the Ukrainian army as a West’s threat in the nuclear sphere," he said at a plenary session of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier that the program of training of Ukrainian pilots in EU countries may be kicked off in two weeks.
According to earlier reports, it is planned to begin training of Ukrainian pilots to operate F-16 planes in Denmark in August. A regional training center will be set up in Romania. According to the Politico newspaper, Western countries may begin F-16 supplies to Kiev in early 2024.