The Western countries’ ‘fighter jet coalition,’ meant to supply Ukraine with fourth-generation F-16 fighters, might pose minimal risk to the UK and the Netherlands (the two countries who came up with the idea), but they are not the ones who will have to host the live training and the aircraft themselves—and possibly even lend their airstrips to launch missions.
During Wednesday’s OSCE meeting in Vienna, Konstantin Gavrilov, the head of the Russian Arms Control Delegation, warned three Eastern European countries against just that, saying that if the F-16s were to enter Ukraine from Polish, Slovak, or Romanian airspace, Moscow would have no choice but to consider these countries active participants in the conflict, the Romanian Hotnews wrote.
“Taking into account the destruction of a significant part of the airfield infrastructure on the territory of Ukraine, there is a high probability that the F-16 tactical combat aircraft transferred to the Ukrainian armed forces by the states NATO members will fly from air bases in Poland, Slovakia, and Romania,” Gavrilov said.
We strongly warn that the use of these fighter jets from the territory of these NATO member states will be considered by Moscow as their participation in the conflict in Ukraine and will force Russia to retaliate.
According to the diplomat, the involvement of NATO and EU countries did not bring Ukraine the desired results but only served to “enrich” the U.S. military-industrial complex, while Kyiv’s refusal to negotiate was “imposed by its Anglo-Saxon manipulators,” and ultimately risks open conflict between two nuclear powers.
However, Europe rarely takes these threats too seriously, as Russia neither has the power, nor the will to actually launch an attack on NATO. Nonetheless, the saber-rattling over the future fighter jet transfers has increased recently, which does make Eastern European countries cautious about addressing the issue.
The so-called fighter jet coalition—involving Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—is an informal group with the goal of providing as many as 50 F-16s to Ukraine, although no timeline has been set and no country has actually pledged any aircraft from its fleet to transfer to Ukraine permanently.
So far, only the logistical and theoretical training of Ukrainian pilots and additional personnel began in Denmark, while Romania was selected to host the live training at a later stage. The Netherlands pledged 18 F-16s for that purpose, and the training will take place at the recently inaugurated 86th Military Airbase in Fetesti, just 70 km from the Black Sea and some 110 km from the Ukrainian border.
Naturally, launching F-16s from NATO territory was never stipulated by leaders publicly, but Russia still considers the training site so close to the conflict area a threat and wants to make sure NATO knows that.
