Moscow could also strike air bases of NATO countries from which they were to take off F-16 jets supplied to Ukraine to carry out incursions into the conflict. This was said by Andrei Kartapolov, president of the Defense Committee of the Duma (the lower house of the Russian Parliament), reiterating what the president had already stated last March Vladimir Putin.
A certain number of F-16 fighter that Ukraine will receive from Western allies will be held at air bases abroad, a senior officer of the Air Force command said earlier, Sergii Holubtsov, in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as reported by the Kyiv Independent. Various NATO countries – Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium And Norway – have committed to supply dozens of US-made F-16s to Ukraine, and the first batch is expected to be delivered from Denmark this summer.
If the F-16s take part in combat actions, “they will certainly be a legitimate target of Russian forces, including the airfields where they will be based, with all the consequences of the case”, said Kartapolov, quoted by the Vedomosti newspaper. Two and a half months does Putin had first warned that if the F-16 were used from bases in third countries, for example Fly these too “would be a legitimate target, no matter where they are”.
Moscow: second phase of tactical nuclear exercises begins
The Russian Defense Ministry announced today that the second phase of non-strategic nuclear exercises in the country has begun. Tass reports it. “In accordance with the decision of the President of the Russian Federation, the second phase of exercises of tactical nuclear forces has begun,” it said in a statement. Moscow had announced the start of the first phase of the exercises on May 21 in the southern Russian district.