Putin: “Russia attacking NATO? Complete nonsense”, but “Western F-16s will be shot down”

Russia has no intention of attacking any NATO country. Russian President Vladimir Putin said this on Wednesday. Although he did warn that Western F-16s supplied to Ukraine will be shot down by the Russian army.

Putin visited a Russian air force base on Wednesday, where he said in a conversation with the pilots that NATO had increasingly expanded to the east since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, but that Russia nevertheless had no plans to attack a NATO member state. “We have no aggressive intentions towards these states,” said a transcript released by the Kremlin on Thursday. “The idea that we will attack another country – Poland, the Baltic states, the Czechs are also afraid – is complete nonsense. It’s just nonsense.”

But Putin did have a warning in store for the West. “They are apparently talking about supplying F-16s to Ukraine, and training pilots. But that will not change the situation on the battlefield. And we will destroy their planes, just as we destroy tanks, armored vehicles, and other equipment such as rocket launchers today. Even if they are used from airports in third countries, they obviously become legitimate targets for us, wherever they may be.”

Belgium, like the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, has pledged to donate F-16s to Ukraine, and is also helping train Ukrainian pilots.