The head of Russian diplomacy, Mr Sergey Lavrov, accused the West on Wednesday of creating a “nuclear threat” to his country with its plans to deliver US-made F-16 fighter jets (Lockheed Martin) to Ukraine’s armed forces.

“The US and its NATO satellites are creating risk of direct military conflict with Russia and that could have disastrous consequences,” Lavrov said during an interview with Russian news website Lenta.

Russia cannot ignore that the F-16s, which various countries have announced they intend to supply the Ukrainian air force, are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, he reiterated.

“The mere fact that such systems will appear in the hands of the Ukrainian armed forces we will consider nuclear threat from the West“, he insisted.

The Russian Foreign Minister he also rejected scenarios in which Moscow plans to use tactical nuclear weapons as part of what the Kremlin has dubbed a “special military operation” in Ukraine. The terms in Russia’s military doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons are well known, he said.

The Russian doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons stipulates that Moscow will use them only in two cases: if it is attacked with nuclear weapons; or if Russia is attacked that threatens the existence of the country.

The training of Ukrainian F-16 pilots will begin in August in Romania, officials said yesterday on the sidelines of the meeting of NATO in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. However, the training does not necessarily mean that such fighters will be delivered, while it is not clear how many could be sent, nor when.