Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia, made a shocking announcement this morning: "Moscow will perceive the sending of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine as a deliberate signal from NATO in the nuclear sphere."
As many readers may already be aware, several NATO countries are in the process of donating F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Those and other countries have been training Ukrainian pilots to fly those aircraft. This process has been ongoing for over 6 months.
What most readers do NOT know is that there is a version of the F-16 that is specifically nuclear-capable and when discussions within NATO began about supplying F-16's to Ukraine, the United States demanded that ONLY the nuclear-capable version be donated!
There have been many fits and starts during the training program, with a number of flight instructors saying "The Ukrainian pilots simply cannot master the aircraft because of the language difference." These are pilots accustomed to MiG and SUKOY aircraft, all of which are in Cyrillic languages.
Their years of training, and even muscle memory, are all geared to those MiG and SUKOY aircraft. They are having terrible trouble trying to adapt to the English language and when stressed, their memory of the MiG and SUKOY causes them to reach for the wrong control within the F-16 because they're so accustomed to the MiG and SUKOY.
We are now at the point where there is enough confidence in the Ukrainian pilots, that NATO is looking to start placing the F-16's into service inside Ukraine, for its conflict with Russia. This deployment could be a week or so away.
Hence, Foreign Minister Lavrov making his startling announcement today.
What then, does Lavrov announcement convert to, in real world terms?
It seems, on its face, that Lavrov's warning would result in any F-16 that comes to within missile launch range of Russian Territory, will be viewed as a NUCLEAR ATTACK.
What other meaning could Lavrov's announcement have?
Of course, if Russia sees F-16's approaching missile-launch range, and believes those planes are nuclear armed, it seems logical on its face, that Russia would make a nuclear response.
If that is the position of the Russians, then what happens if Russia actually makes such a response?
Does the collective West intentionally enter the conflict, which does NOT involve a NATO member? Such a move would immediately commence actual World War 3.
And if Russia makes a nuclear response to approaching F-16's, will NATO make a nuclear response to Russia's response? How fast will THAT escalate?
