Russia will not attack NATO but F-16s will be shot down in Ukraine, Putin says
Russia has no designs on any NATO country but if the West supplies F-16 fighters to Ukraine then they will be shot down by Russian forces, Vladimir Putin said.
Russia has no designs on any NATO country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic states or the Czech Republic, but if the West supplies F-16 fighters to Ukraine then they will be shot down by Russian forces, President Vladimir Putin said late Wednesday.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sits in the cockpit of a helicopter simulator at an aviation facility in Torzhok on Wednesday. Mikhail Metzel / APSpeaking to Russian air force pilots, Putin said the U.S.-led military alliance had expanded eastward towards Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union but that Moscow had no plans to attack a NATO state.
“We have no aggressive intentions towards these states,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript released on Thursday.
“The idea that we will attack some other country — Poland, the Baltic States, and the Czechs are also being scared — is complete nonsense. It’s just drivel.”
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