“We strongly warn that the use of these fighters from the territory of these NATO member countries will be considered by Moscow as their participation in the conflict in Ukraine and will force Russia to take retaliatory measures,” he said.
As the diplomat noted, opinions began to emerge that in conditions of significant destruction of airfields in the post-Soviet republic, the F-16s transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces could take off from air bases in Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
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Russia will resort to response measures, if Kiev uses NATO airbases for sorties of western-made planes, handed over to Ukraine, says Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the military security and arms control talks in Vienna.
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According to the diplomat, Moscow will view this as these countries’ participation in the conflict and will force Russia to resort to "response measures."