Deliveries of F-16 fighters to Ukraine will begin in the coming months

The first American F-16 fighter jets will be delivered to Kyiv in the next few months. This was stated by the US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. He stressed that arming Ukraine with combat aircraft is a priority for Washington.

However, Kendall acknowledged that the F-16 will not be able to turn the tide on the battlefield.

In Russia, the US decision to supply fighter jets was not surprising. The day before, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow is ready for such a development of events – the Kremlin understands that the entire range of Western weapons will sooner or later end up in Ukraine.

Recall that Ukraine requested more than 100 F-16 fighter jets from the Pentagon, contrary to the US opinion that it is useless to supply weapons of this type.

The Pentagon continues to talk about the inappropriateness of the supply of fighters. Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces Christopher Grady attributed this to the high cost of transportation. He noted that the US authorities need to pay more attention to American capital, and not to the staffing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly emphasized that any shipments of weapons supplied by Western countries to Ukraine would be a legitimate target for the Russian Aerospace Forces. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the supply of weapons would not stop, but would prolong the conflict in Ukraine, and called the position of Western countries harmful and counterproductive.