U.S. rejects Poland’s offer to give it Russian-made fighter jets for Ukraine
The Pentagon has rejected Poland’s offer to give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Poland’s proposal to deliver the jets to the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of jets departing from a US and NATO base to fly into airspace contested by Russia.
“We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one,” Mr Kirby said in a statement.
“It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it.”
Any decision to provide the MiGs would be a morale booster for Ukraine as Russian attacks on its cities deepen the humanitarian catastrophe.
But it also would raise the risks of a wider war.
A senior US diplomat said Poland’s announcement came as a surprise.
“To my knowledge, it wasn’t pre-consulted with us that they plan to get these planes to us,” US undersecretary of state Victoria Nuland said.
Ukraine has been pleading for more warplanes and Washington has been looking at a proposal under which Poland would supply Ukraine with the MiG-29s and in turn receive American F-16s.
Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly the Soviet-era MiG fighter jets.
The Polish Foreign Ministry announced the plan in a statement, which said the jets would be delivered to Ramstein free of charge.
“At the same time, Poland requests the United States to provide us with used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities,” it said.
The Polish government also appealed to other owners of MiG-29 jets to follow suit.
Former Soviet-bloc NATO members Bulgaria and Slovakia also still have Soviet-made fighter jets in their air forces.
Poland’s decision to publicly float its plan came the day before US Vice-President Kamala Harris was scheduled to depart for Warsaw for talks with Polish officials.
The talks were expected to focus largely on US efforts to help Poland and other eastern European nations that had taken in some 2 million refugees since the war started almost two weeks ago.