MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has no designs on any NATO nation and won’t assault Poland, the Baltic states or the Czech Republic but when the West provides F-16 combatants to Ukraine then they’ll be shot down through Russian forces, President Vladimir Putin stated overdue on Wednesday.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has brought on the private disaster in Russia’s family members with the West because the 1962 Cuban Missile Disaster.Talking to Russian air pressure pilots, Putin stated the U.S.-led army alliance had expanded eastwards against Russia because the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union however that Moscow had no plans to assault a NATO state.”We don’t have any competitive intentions against those states,” Putin stated, in line with a Kremlin transcript launched on Thursday.”The concept we can assault another nation – Poland, the Baltic States, and the Czechs also are being scared – is entire nonsense. It is simply drivel.”The Kremlin, which accuses the U.S. of preventing in opposition to Russia through supporting Ukraine with cash, guns and intelligence, says family members with Washington have almost certainly by no means been worse.Requested about F-16 combatants which the West has promised to ship to Ukraine, Putin stated such plane would no longer exchange the placement in Ukraine.”If they provide F-16s, and they’re speaking about this and are it appears coaching pilots, this is not going to exchange the placement at the battlefield,” Putin stated.”And we can damage the plane simply as we damage these days tanks, armoured automobiles and different apparatus, together with more than one rocket launchers.”Putin stated that F-16 may additionally lift nuclear guns.”After all, if they’ll be used from airfields in 3rd nations, they turn into for us legit goals, anyplace they could be positioned,” Putin stated.Putin’s remarks adopted feedback previous within the day through Ukrainian Overseas Minister Dmytro Kuleba that the plane must arrive in Ukraine within the coming months.Ukraine, now greater than two years right into a full-fledged warfare in opposition to Russia, has sought F-16s for plenty of months.Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands are amongst nations that have pledged to donate F-16s. A coalition of nations has promised to assist teach Ukrainian pilots of their use.(Reporting through Man Faulconbridge in Moscow and Ron Popeski; Enhancing through Sandra Maler and Michael Perry)
