VIENNA, December 13. /TASS/. Russia will resort to response measures, if Kiev uses NATO airbases for sorties of western-made planes, handed over to Ukraine, says Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the military security and arms control talks in Vienna.
"We already hear comments that, amid the significant destruction of Ukraine’s airstrip infrastructure, the F-16s handed over to Ukraine may carry out their missions from airbases in Poland, Romania and Slovakia," he said during the OSCE Forum meeting on cooperation in security.
According to the diplomat, Moscow will view this as these countries’ participation in the conflict and will force Russia to resort to "response measures."
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
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Even though certain eastern European allies pledged F-16s long ago, it could still be a lengthy amount of time before Ukrainian pilots are fully trained, enough to be deployed in combat on the US-made warplane.
Western officials have in recent months admitted that Russia has the upper hand, and that Ukraine's summer offensive failed, but everyone is now putting in place their 'long war' strategies. The Kremlin's new warning and threat also seems part of this longer term planning from Moscow's perspective.
1. Stoltenberg's idiocy always proudly on display. NATO's deployment of a missile defense system in Poland is of course purely "defensive." Then he remembers himself. No, NATO isn't planning on fighting a nuclear war with Russia on the European continent.
https://t.co/xUNQSps26h pic.twitter.com/Sv1yYbiwIv
— George Szamuely (@GeorgeSzamuely)
December 14, 2023
Russia has been taking notice of the US moving its F-16s to places like Romania, where its entirely possible they could eventually be used by Ukrainian pilots. This is what Russia fears, and it's putting Washington on notice.