Russian forces have struck Ukrainian airbases that were set to house Western-supplied fighter jets, including USA-designed F-16’s, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported.
The Russian military launched a group strike, employing long-range sea-based weapons, the Kinzhal hyper-sonic missile, and unmanned aerial vehicles to attack the airfield infrastructure of Ukraine, planned to accommodate F-16’s from Western countries.
The goal of the strike has been achieved. All designated targets have been hit, without specifying the number or location of the airfields that were struck.
The report comes as Kiev’s Western backers, including the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, have pledged to provide Ukraine with as many as 60 F-16’s by the end of the year. However, none of the jets have yet been supplied.
Deliveries have apparently been held up because Ukrainian pilots are still only learning to operate the jets. Once they have completed their training by the end of the year, there will still only be a “handful” of pilots.
According to recent media reports, neither does Ukraine have enough maintenance crews to service the NATO supplied jets.
Given that Kiev would not have sufficient pilots to operate all 60 of the donated F-16’s, the chief of aviation of Ukraine’s Air Force Command, Sergey Golubtsov, suggested earlier this month that some of the jets could be stationed at bases in neighboring NATO countries.
However, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan emphasized last week that the plan is to put the F-16’s in Ukraine, stressing that under a recently signed ten-year security agreement between Washington and Kiev, the warplanes should to be based in Ukraine!
Meanwhile, Moscow has repeatedly warned that any Western weapons delivered to Ukraine will be considered legitimate targets for strikes by Russian forces, including foreign-supplied fighter jets and the bases that house them.
Russian State Duma Defense Committee chairman Andrey Kartapolov has also stressed that if any Western-supplied F-16’s are used by Kiev in combat operations while stationed at NATO airfields, then these facilities would also become legitimate targets for Moscow.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point WW III News 2024.
No where left to land or take off, Luftwaffe 2.0 is toast!
Wonderful!
Well done Russia!
My last word for today…Washington the military wing, London the legislative wing and the Vatican subduing minds are the great evil of our time and need to be seen for what they are.Murderers of men and nations.They need to be broken up.!
Ukrainian Gopniki “men” cowards who ran away using “asylum” to get AMERICAN BENEFITS Social Security, Food Stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, buying BMW, Mercedes with concealed wealth. Ukrainian men using stolen money, prostitution earnings to buy houses in America, attacking Americans, forcing Americans out of state housing intended for elderly and disabled Americans.