Putin warned that any Western country deploying US F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine would become a “legitimate target” for Kremlin forces. Photo: US Air Force Reprint (file photo)
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier threatened to strike Ukraine’s F-16 bases in third countries. In this regard, Joakim Paasikivi, an expert at the Swedish Defense University, reminded the world to take it seriously and warned Russia, “If Putin wants to go to war with NATO, it will start like this. This will be the Third World War .”
Putin said through the TASS news agency that he claims Ukraine’s F-16 fighter jets are Moscow’s legal targets. “If they are used from an airport in a third country, they will become legal targets regardless of where they are.”
“Euractiv” said that Lieutenant Colonel Pasikivi, an expert at the National Defense University in Stockholm, Sweden, pointed out that Putin’s statement is mainly an increase in rhetorical threats, and countries should take it seriously.
Passikivi pointed out, “It is very important for Putin to constantly tell the Russians that the West is a major threat to the country. The so-called Western countries will be a nuclear threat to Russia is the core of Moscow’s narrative .”
Passikivi analyzed that Putin is worried that the F-16 is expected to arrive in Ukraine this summer, which will significantly improve Ukraine’s combat capabilities.
“The Kremlin’s attitude has become a bit tougher. The same threats have been issued in the past, but it has just identified the F-16 so clearly and hit Western targets,” said Pasikivi.
Passikivi believes that authorities in Moscow feel the need to try to scare the West into submission.
Paskivi said that Russia knows it cannot win a war against NATO, but there are no guarantees. “Russia has launched the biggest war in Europe since the Second World War and has fought a brutal war without complying with the laws of war. We cannot trust Russia.”
Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium have committed to deliver 45 F-16 aircraft to Ukraine, which will increase to 60 by the end of this year.
Western allies are currently training Ukrainian pilots to fly the plane, with the first batch of pilots completing training earlier this month.
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