all right now to discuss more on this we're being joined by Dr Gilbert doov who's an international Affairs analyst author and historian he of course joining us live from Brussels Dr Dr thank you very much indeed sir for joining us here on V and let me in fact start off by asking you this the fact that an F16 fighter jet about which there had been a huge amount of debate but Ukraine had asking for had been asking for it the Western allies had been delaying it eventually the Ukrainian Pilots were trained but now Ukraine is ended up losing one of these planes in some pretty controversial circumstances it's being said that it crashed on its own but there are reports which also say that perhaps it could have been shot down as well what's your take on this well the the discussion as I've seen is at the Pres state that a member of the rajer parliament of Ukraine Madam guga has made claims that the F16 was shut down by a us Patriot uh anti-aircraft missile uh and that was denounced by the head of the Ukrainian Air Force Mr aruk who said that she might be brought to justice for making these claims that bech the honor of the Ukrainian Air Force that is to my knowledge the latest state of play of course the interesting thing here is if indeed it was friendly fire and I can say that the ukrainians unanimously are denying that it was hostile fire that brought down the plane if it was friendly fire uh that is very perplexing because to our to the information I've received so much of the battlefield um activity operations is being directed by the United States remotely and partly in place and that the United States has its Superior command and control infrastructure operating the what is going on in Ukraine therefore that a patriot missile would uh would intercept a Ukrainian F-16 shows if it happens a real breakdown in that system you know I think that's that's an important point that you brought up and also the fact that the Russians have been very quiet about this the fact that uh F-16 fighter jet uh the news of this came much later almost 3 days since the incident happened and it came a report in the Wall Street Journal why do you think the Russians have been silent about an F-16 fit going down well by their silence they allow one to suppose that they were responsible for bringing it down which is very much in their interests since uh since Mr bosv the minister of defense and others in the Russian government have said that they would Dispatch they would eliminate liquidate the f-16s within within a few weeks so if one went down within the first week of his operation that's already 177% of the Ukrainian F-16 Air Force that's just been knocked out and so the Russians can be koi they can just sit back and let the ukrainians bitter among themselves bicker among themselves all right and my final quick question to you is this what do you think will happen to this strategy where Ukraine had been asking for F-16 fets will the Western Nations now be willing to send more F-16 fire jets to Ukraine well the probably will the the issue is not the f-16s as such they're very nice flying machines the question is what are they equipped with this PL This Plane if it went down as described was equipped in a way that the Russians could not take exception to it was being used to bring down cruise missiles and the ukrainians said that it shot down in fact three three Russian cruise missiles uh on Ukrainian territory or the missiles approaching Ukrainian Terr the Russians have no objection to that the problem is how else these f16s would be used and the most likely way they' be used is to equip them with Storm Shadow or the French scalp uh medium to long range missiles or most most um uh objectionable to the Russians if they are equipped with the American uh jasm um missiles which are crew which are um in the stealth series that is they're very difficult to Det protect therefore very difficult to down all of these missiles have the potential of 500 met or more 500 km or more and could cause great damage to civilian and Military infrastructure in Russia which is a casus belly that would that would yeah okay all right thank you very much indeed Dr do for joining us and getting us all those details there thank you very much indeed now thanks for having me for all the latest news download the Von app And subscribe to our YouTube channel and