Ryabkov: The Deployment of F-16s in Ukraine Means There Are No Circuit Breakers Left on Attacks against Russia

Aug. 9—In the same hard-nosed interview with the “Rossiya-1” TV channel on Aug. 4 in which he announced that “the era of Moscow’s unilateral concessions is now definitely over,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov also explained that the recent deployment of NATO F-16s to Ukraine had opened the floodgates to unlimited escalation against Russia. Interviewer Olga Skabeyeva asked: “F-16s made their first sorties in Ukraine. Strikes on Russia are also allowed. Our actions?” to which Ryabkov responded:

“They do not have weapons which could change the situation on the battlefield in their favor. The F-16s, like everything that we saw on Poklonnaya Gora [park where trophy Western military hardware captured in the Donbass was put on display in May], and now there’s a Patriot system in that park—their wreckage and burnt fuselages will also be displayed there. The problem is escalation. The problem is that there are no circuit breakers anymore. You correctly said that strikes on the territory of Russia are allowed. The Americans’ assurances that no such decisions have been made and no indulgences were granted to Kiev, are worthless.”

Skabeyeva asked: “If they fly from NATO airfields, will we strike?”

To which Ryabkov responded: “Any weapons and any forces used against us in connection with or in the course of the SMO [special military operation] are legitimate targets for us. And those who listen only to themselves, sitting in Washington, in Brussels, in Warsaw, or wherever, ought to pay attention.”