Russia warns West sending F-16s to Ukraine ‘carries enormous risks’: TASS

The West’s effort to doubtlessly ship fashionable fighter jets to Ukraine “carries monumental dangers,” Russia’s Deputy Overseas Minister Alexander Grushko warned on Saturday, in accordance with Russian state information company TASS.

The minister’s feedback in an interview with TASS come within the wake of the U.S. getting behind a joint worldwide effort to coach Ukrainian pilots to make use of fashionable fighter plane together with F-16s. This might additionally pave the way in which to finally ship superior Western fight jets to Ukraine, in accordance with a senior administration official.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the U.S. choice in a tweet on Friday, saying that it “will drastically improve our military within the sky.” He added that he counted on discussing “the sensible implementation of this choice” on the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

“We are able to see that Western nations proceed to stay to an escalation state of affairs, which carries monumental dangers for them,” Grushko mentioned within the interview. “In any case, we are going to take it into consideration when planning. We’ve all the mandatory means to realize our objectives,” he added.

The choice from the U.S. follows a concerted effort by Ukraine to get its allies to produce its army with fashionable jets, particularly the U.S.-built F-16s.