2023-07-13 01:31:05
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the West of creating a nuclear threat by planning to deliver more modern fighter jets to Ukraine.
“The USA and its NATO allies are creating the risk of a military confrontation with Russia and this can have catastrophic consequences,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Russian portal Lenta.ru.
The head of diplomacy added that Russia cannot ignore that the F-16 planes, which Western countries plan to supply to Ukraine, can potentially carry nuclear weapons.
“The mere fact that such systems appear in the Ukrainian armed forces will be considered a nuclear threat from the West,” Lavrov continued.
The minister also denied that Russia is planning tactical nuclear strikes in Ukraine. The conditions for the use of such weapons are well known, Lavrov said.
Russian doctrine on nuclear weapons dictates that Moscow will use them only in response to two scenarios: either a nuclear attack on Russia, or an attack by Russia with conventional weapons that threaten the very existence of the country.
The training of Ukrainian F-16 pilots will begin in Romania in August, official sources announced on Tuesday at the NATO summit in Lithuania. But this training does not mean that F-16s will be delivered. No country has yet committed to supplying it to Ukraine to date.
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