Russian Diplomat Criticized the West’s Attempts to Supply Ukraine With F-16s
Jose Nino
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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov declared in an interview with the International Affairs journal, which was published on March 23, 2023 Tuesday, that nations of the Collective West will not accomplish anything of substance by supplying F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. He stressed that Russia will continue carrying out its special military operation in Ukraine.
“Russia’s response [to the F-16 supplies] will be the systematic continuation of efforts to attain the goals of the special military operation. <…> They continue trying to ‘chase two geopolitical rabbits’ and catch none in various spheres, which is typical of the Americans. But they won’t achieve anything with their F-16s,” he stated.
“Or with any other systems they have already supplied or are planning to supply to Ukraine,” he stated. In addition, he said that “all the rest who have become one singing their mantras about inflicting a strategic defeat to Russia ” won’t accomplish anything of substance either.
United States President Joe Biden said to a news conference in the aftermath of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima on May 21 that the Collective West had plans of training Ukrainian pilots, which includes the use of F-16s. In a similar vein, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US and its allies would discuss the list of potential countries who could potentially send F-16s to Ukraine in the upcoming months.
F-16s won’t change the balance of power in this conflict. Russia enjoys escalatory dominance in this conflict theater and no amount of external military aid to Ukraine will change that. If anything, this will make Russia pursue more maximalist aims that will likely result in the destruction of the Ukrainian nation. Sadly, most Western policymakers don’t grasp the ramifications of sending more sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine.
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