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Putin says Ukraine obtaining F-16 jets will not change anything but prolong war

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Kyiv’s allies supplying the Ukrainian army with F-16 fighter jets will not have a significant impact on the war and would only draw out the conflict.

Putin stressed that supplying Ukraine with new weapons, including cluster munitions, depleted uranium ammunition and F-16 fighters, will not change the situation at the battlefront, state news agency TASS reported.

“Will this change anything? I think not. I’m sure it won’t. Will it drag on? Yes, it will. The other thing that worries me is that there are no restrictions,” Putin said.

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He criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration for supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions. He said that he recalled that “quite recently the US administration believed that the use of cluster munitions is a war crime, they publicly said so.” He added, however, “now they themselves are supplying cluster munitions to the combat zone in Ukraine.”

Putin accused Washington of needing to “show at least some results at all costs” in light of the upcoming American elections in November and that it was “pushing the Ukrainians to continue hostilities.”

Additionally, Putin claimed the Ukrainians lost 71,000 personnel since the beginning of the counter-offensive. He said: “Ukraine is carrying out a so-called counter-offensive. But there are no results… There are losses, large ones. Since the beginning of the counter-offensive, the loss of personnel is 71 thousand people.”

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