Western countries will run ”colossal risks” if they supply Ukraine with the required F-16s. This was stated by the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko quoted by the Tass news agency.
“We are seeing that Western countries are still moving forward with the escalation scenario. This entails colossal risks for themselves”Grushko said when answering a question about the supply of F-16 fighters to Ukraine. “In any case, this scenario will be taken into account in all our plans and we have all the necessary means to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. “Sergei Lavrov’s deputy continued.
On the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Hiroshima, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan explained that ”nothing has changed”, that the supply of F-16 fighters to Ukraine does not represent a turning point in the support for Kiev, nor an escalation. The United States, he said, had never ruled out the possibility of delivering F-16s to the Ukrainian military.
The decision to hand them over now, Sullivan said, fits into the necessities of the war. ”The time has come” to consider what the Ukrainian armed forces need to repel Russian aggression and fighters are part of this, Sullivan said. However, there is no indication of how long the training of Ukrainian pilots for the use of the F-16 will last.
MEDVEDEV – As for negotiations, talks on Ukraine are now useless, said Deputy Chairman of the National Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. Negotiations just in case must take place only with the “Western masters of Kiev in Washington” and to discuss -conflict world order, added the former president and former prime minister in a post on Telegram. “How can negotiations be started on an equal footing with a half-decayed neo-Nazi country under external influence? Negotiations are possible only with its masters, namely with Washington. There is no one else to talk to. And it is possible to negotiate only on a post-conflict world order. But it’s too early to talk about it. There is no need for any negotiation” at the moment.