![\"Russia](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-06\/fniguefg_f16-reuters_625x300_06_June_23.jpg\"\/ "\\"Russia")
<\/div>\nUS has said there was no final decision on Washington sending the aircraft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Russia: <\/b><\/p>\n
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that US-built F-16 fighter jets can ‘accommodate’ nuclear weapons and warned that supplying Kyiv with them will escalate the conflict further.<\/p>\n
“We must keep in mind that one of the modifications of the F-16 can ‘accommodate’ nuclear weapons,” Lavrov said in a speech at a military base in Dushanbe in Tajikistan, according to a transcript on the ministry’s website.<\/p>\n
“If they do not understand this, then they are worthless as military strategists and planners.”<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has long appealed for the F-16 jets, saying their appearance with Ukrainian pilots would be a sure signal from the world that Russia’s invasion would end in defeat.<\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden told G7 leaders last month that Washington supported joint allied training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighters.<\/p>\n
But US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said there was no final decision on Washington sending aircraft.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n