russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, stated that as American F-16 fighters theoretically could carry nuclear weapons, russia would see their future handover to Ukraine as a "threat in the nuclear sphere".
"We have informed the nuclear states of the USA, Britain, and France, that russia cannot ignore the capability of these planes to carry nuclear weapons. No assurances here will help," Lavrov said in an interview with russian media, as reported by the BBC.
"During combat operations, our military will not differentiate whether each specific plane of the aforementioned type is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not. The mere fact of the appearance of such systems in the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be regarded by us as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere," the head of the russian Foreign Ministry announced.
It is known that Ukraine renounced part of the Soviet nuclear arsenal under the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, which remained on its territory, under the guarantees of its security, including from russia. There are no signs that nuclear weapons could appear in the country again in the near future by one means or another.
Background. The training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s is planned to begin in Romania in August, and the transfer of the first planes to Ukraine, according to representatives of Ukraine and its allies, could occur approximately half a year after that.