MENACING

Russian Ambassador Issues Dire NATO Warning Over F-16s

President Biden signed off on the fighter jets being supplied to Ukraine last week.

Allowing F-16 fighter jets to operate in Ukraine could lead to serious questions about NATO’s involvement in the war, Russia’s ambassador to the United States said Monday. Last week, President Joe Biden allowed allies to send their supplies of the U.S.-made jets to Kyiv and backed training programs for Ukrainian pilots. “There is no infrastructure for the operation of the F-16 in Ukraine and the needed number of pilots and maintenance personnel is not there either,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in comments published on Telegram on Monday. “What will happen if the American fighters take off from NATO airfields, controlled by foreign ‘volunteers’?” Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the transfer of the jets “absolutely pointless and stupid,” according to state media, on the grounds that Moscow’s military “capabilities are such that all the goals” of the invasion “will certainly be achieved.”