S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems in Turkey can "desacralize" (remove religious or sacred status or significance from) fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters, a message from the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation said.
"The thrill and excitement of the Pentagon about the probable desacralization of F-35 fighters by Turkish S-400 air defense systems are not unfounded," the message from the department said. F-35 fighter jets are invisible only to US taxpayers and foreign buyers, Russian military officials added.
In July, Defense News website suggested several ways that Turkey could resort to to use Russian-made S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft systems and F-35 Lightning II simultaneously.
The agreement to supply four Russian-made S-400 Triumf divisions to Turkey was concluded in September 2017. The contract was evaluated at $2.5 billion with a Russian loan covering a half of the amount. Russia started supplying S-400 systems to Turkey in July of 2019. Washington subsequently suspended the supplies of F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft to Turkey. In total, Turkey was supposed to receive more than a hundred fifth-generation fighters from the USA.