(John Ransom, Headline USA) Russia’s top diplomat has warned that the introduction of Western military equipment into Ukraine could start World War III, which would include nuclear weapons, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Plenty of Warning from Russia
Is this what (Z)Elensky’s press conference was about
Is this why Blinken is in Ukraine
Is this why NATO and US in particular is transporting billions in Heavy Weapons
Armoured vehicles for NATO
Are we on the edge of WWIII with NATO staging FF pic.twitter.com/xGRcnj8qQ1— 🍀kmm9973🍀 (@kim9973) April 24, 2022
“The risks now are considerable,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russia’s state television, according to a transcript of an interview on the ministry’s website.
“I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it,” added Lavrov.
The warning comes as experts say that the United States and its Western allies are considering the introduction of game-changing weapons into Ukraine and the Biden administration faces criticism for pursuing an open-escalation policy.
“We believe that we can win—they can win—if they have the right equipment, the right support,” said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, after meeting with the Ukrainian president, according to France 24.
At the meeting Austin promised another $700 million worth of US military aid, including advanced artillery, but it’s unclear if fighter jets will be part of the package.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking for fighters since he first vowed to beat back the Russian invasion.
NATO has been accelerating its deployment of the stealthy F-35 fighter jets to Eastern Europe in light of the invasion, according to Janes, the encyclopedia of military hardware.
One expert explained that the use of the US F-35 in theater could change the dynamic of the war.
“[O]ne of the specialty mission sets that it performs is suppression of enemy air defenses or SEAD, as we call it, the capability to destroy surface to air missiles, ground defenses, and to establish air superiority and ultimately air dominance,” Billie Flynn, a former Royal Canadian Air Force lieutenant colonel and senior F-35 test pilot for Lockheed Martin, told the Eurasian Times.
It’s precisely that capability that the Russian foreign minister seemed to have in mind when he warned of the introduction of Western weapons to the conflict.
Western weapons “will be a legitimate target,” Lavrov said, according to the Associated Press.
Whether anyone at the Pentagon or in the White House noticed that he didn’t limit the location of those weapons to just Ukraine, is up in the air.
But the Associated Press report noted that Russian strikes are now happening deeper and deeper inside Ukraine, away from the actual battle area.
