Deliveries of aging F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will play into Russia's hands and improve its image, The Independent has speculated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin "would savor the image that destroying F-16s from NATO countries would bring," the UK media outlet noted. Russia’s Armed Forces will likely "destroy the F-16s on the ground with long-range missiles," the publication further predicted.
It went on to underscore that Russia’s Su-35 fighter jet would be "one of the biggest threats" to the F-16s, and noted that sophisticated air surveillance radars would be used against them. Russia’s air defense systems would make it too risky for Ukraine to try to use the jets to support its troop movements on the front line, analysts cited by the outlet acknowledged.
The fact that Kiev’s pilots only got a nine-month training “crash course” on using the F-16s as compared to the typical three-year course Western pilots receive was also noted.
Ukraine recently received a handful of F-16s from the Netherlands. Denmark, Belgium, and Norway have promised to provide the Kiev regime with more over the next few months.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned the United States and its NATO allies that Moscow sees the presence of nuclear-capable F-16s in Ukraine as a nuclear threat.
President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Western-supplied F-16 jets to Ukraine would not have the power to alter the situation on the battlefield. He warned that if these fighter jets are deployed from the territory of third countries, they will be considered legitimate targets for Russian forces. Every previous alleged game-changing weapon has failed to turn the tide of the West's proxy conflict in Ukraine, as Russia has had effective countermeasures ready and waiting for each of them.