NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg claimed on Thursday that Ukraine using NATO-provided F-16 fighter jets to strike inside Russian territory would not be an escalation.
Several NATO members will send US-made F-16s to Ukraine once pilots have completed training, and at least two — the Netherlands and Denmark — have said Ukraine could use the jest to hit targets inside Russia.
The US recently gave Ukraine the green light to use US-provided missile systems in strikes inside Russia near Ukraine’s Kharkiv oblast. The use of NATO weapons inside Russia risks provoking a major response from Moscow, but Stoltenberg has been shrugging off the warnings.
When asked about Ukraine using F-16s to strike Russian territory, Stoltenberg said he welcomed the idea. “I welcome that Allies have reduced or loosened their restrictions on the use of weapons also against military targets inside Russia because we need to understand what this is. This is war or aggression,” he said before a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels.
Stoltenberg said that Ukraine has the right to self-defense under international law, and that applies to strikes inside Russian territory. “Self-defense is not escalation. Self-defense is a right enshrined in the UN Charter. And we have the right to help Ukraine uphold the right,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has escalated the war in Ukraine several times in direct response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory, including the offensive in Kharkiv, which he said was launched in response to Ukrainian attacks in Russia’s Belgorod oblast. The direct NATO support for strikes inside Russia risks another major escalation.
Putin and other Russian officials have also noted that F-16s could be armed with nuclear weapons and said they could be treated as a nuclear threat. A Ukrainian commander said some of the F-16s will be stored abroad to protect them from Russian strikes, but that could make the NATO bases housing them potential targets for Russia.
Horse's behind says what?
Just watch, nothing is an escalation, Ukraine is going to win back Crimea tomorrow. Because the last $350 billion and endless weapons did the trick, right? Russia will miraculously surrender tomorrow and submit to western sanctions?…/s
And Russia thinks that the $50 billion seized Russian assets to be given to Kiev is okie dokie, no big deal./s
whatever could go wrong??
An escalation isn't an escalation because……… NATO said it isn't. Got it Russia?
What do you expect? …If I spent years with my head up Zelensky's A$$, his $hit would be coming out of my mouth when I tried to speak. …No. Not sarcasm.
And when Russia responds it won't be an escalation either. It would just be a continuation of them reacting to 30+ years of provocations that is the reason for this war. It's nice to start history at a point that your linguistic gymnastics can make sense like Stoltenberg and the West (US) constantly do.
NATO is run by insane Secretary Jens Stoltenberg who was never trained in military strategy and / or tactics.
He is another pig feeding at the money slop trough.
I hope everyone watched Pepe Escobar on Judge Nap yesterday. He laid it out: Russia is under the impression that the West is preparing for a direct hot war between NATO and Russia and indeed is already prosecuting it with strikes on Russian long-range radar sites. So Russia is preparing for war in Europe and asymmetric war everywhere else.
Pepe Escobar : Russia Readies War With NATO
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I did. I watch Judging Freedom each day.
Fools & knaves dead reckoning for WWIII.
Russia has many options now, but NATO has very few. And yet, NATO keeps upping the ante and with each new bet it spends another option. If the West has any game plan remaining in this war, I'm not seeing it.
The US empire is coming to an end but even die-hard MICIMATTers don't want to blow up the world. They must be looking for an excuse to dump Ukraine. At least, I hope so. Maybe the $50 billion in stolen Russian assets is bait for a corruption scandal in Ukraine?
I doubt the F-16 will be of any significance. They a5e old and have easily targeted radar signatures..