MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. The six F-16 fighter jets delivered to Ukraine will have no bearing on the course of Russia's special military operation in any way, Major General Apty Alaudinov, deputy chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Main Military-Political Department and commander of the Akhmat special forces commando unit, told TASS.
"These six F-16s will not change anything. Since, trust me, if the course of the current special military operation could have been changed by any plane, and not only an F-16 - believe me, these planes would have been given to Ukraine a long time ago," he said.
Alaudinov stressed that these outdated planes, being made before the turn of the century, having nothing modern or top-secret, "absolutely do not change anything." "Just an ordinary plane, actually, which any average Soviet fighter jet can handle," he noted.
In his opinion, all of this is being done in order to say that "America helped Ukraine, or its allies helped Ukraine, knowing full well that this won’t change anything."
Western supplies to Ukraine
On August 4, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky confirmed that Kiev had received the first batch of F-16s from its Western allies. That said, he did not specify how many aircraft Kiev received or where they will be based. Earlier, the Economist reported that Ukraine received 10 F-16s from Western countries with plans that their number will grow to 20 by the end of the year. According to the news outlet, overall, the Kiev regime may count on having 79 F-16s, with the West continuing to supply the jets in stages throughout 2025.