2023-05-29 08:11:32
The Westerners “play with fire“after the recent green light from the United States for future deliveries of F-16 fighter jets to Kiev, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced on Sunday, who lamented “an unacceptable escalation“.
“It’s playing with fire. There is no doubt“, said Lavrov in an interview on Russian state television, an excerpt of which was published on the social networks of the journalist who interviewed him, Pavel Zarubin. “This is an unacceptable escalation” conducted by “Washington, London and their satellites within the EU” who want “weaken Russia“, he emphasized.
According to him, through the delivery of modern armaments to kyiv, the West wants “to inflict (on Moscow) a strategic defeat” et “dismember“Russia, rhetoric regularly used by Russian leaders.
Supporters of Kiev had refused for more than a year to supply fighter jets to the Ukrainian army for fear of an escalation of the conflict, but the United States finally gave the green light to authorize the delivery of these F-16s that Kiev demanded tirelessly. This represents a major shift in Western support for Kyiv that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called “historical” this decision.
The delivery schedule of these American-made F-16s and their number have not yet been decided, and Ukrainian pilots must first be trained to learn how to handle them.
According to US President Joe Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky gave him “categorically insured“that these combat aircraft would not attack Russian territory, a sine qua non condition before any shipment of equipment to Ukraine.
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