MP Belik called the arrival of F-16s in Ukraine a round of global confrontation
Dmitry Belik, a State Duma deputy from Sevastopol and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, called the arrival of US F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine a new round of global confrontation.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the arrival of F-16s to Ukraine the day before. He also published a video of a pair of F-16 fighter jets flying over, as well as two more fighter jets with Ukrainian identification marks.
“The delivery of the F-16 has so dizzy Zelenskyy’s head that he has lost his orientation in the military-political space. F-16s are, without a doubt, a new round in the global confrontation between Russia and the West. They should not be discounted, they are serious opponents for our troops, but we will overcome this confrontation,” Belik told RIA Novosti.
According to him, Russia is capable of countering Western weapons supplied to Kiev.
“We take the blow on ourselves, cases conclusions and launch a counterattack. And Zelenskyy, it seems, will remain flying in the clouds when all the F-16s collapse to the ground,” Belik said.
Earlier, the Economist reported that Ukraine on 31 July received the first ten of seventy-nine F-16 fighter jets that the US had promised to supply. The publication emphasised that this came a year after the administration of US President Joe Biden approved their shipment to Kiev.
The Telegraph newspaper reported on 31 July that Ukraine had made its first sorties with F-16s, with the fighters used as air defence aircraft.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said earlier that the supply of F-16 fighter jets to Kiev would not have a significant impact on the dynamics of events on the front, the jets would be shot down and destroyed.