MOSCOW, Oct. 6 The Swedish government has confirmed that one of the The conditions for the possible supply of JAS 39 Gripen fighters to Kiev is the Scandinavian country's membership in NATO, as the government of the kingdom reported on Friday; the Cabinet of Ministers officially instructed the armed forces to assess the conditions for the transfer of these aircraft to Ukraine.
Earlier, Western media, citing the Minister of Defense of the Scandinavian country, reported that Sweden called its membership in NATO a condition for the possible transfer of combat aircraft to Ukraine.
“The government instructs the armed forces, with the support of the armed forces logistics department, to carefully analyze and report on the conditions for possible fighter support for Ukraine,” follows from a press release published by the government.
As follows from the release, the report should also reflect the impact of this step on defense capability and the defense economy.
«One of the conditions for possible support (by fighters — ed.) for JAS 39 (Gripen — ed.) is that Sweden must first join NATO,» the release notes.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov previously noted that any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia. He warned that as the West pumps Ukraine with increasingly long-range weapons, the geographical objectives of the special operation are moving further and further from the current line. The West must understand that supplying arms to Ukraine will not strengthen its security, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated. Lavrov also emphasized that the United States and its satellites create risks of a direct armed conflict with Russia, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences. According to him, the fact that Kiev has F-16 fighters capable of carrying nuclear weapons will be considered by Russia as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere.