WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Pentagon on Tuesday rejected Poland’s offer to give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine, in a rare public display of disharmony by NATO allies seeking to boost Ukrainian fighters while avoiding getting caught up in a wider war with Russia.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Poland’s proposal earlier Tuesday to deliver the jets to the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of jets departing from a U.S. and NATO base to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine war.
“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,” Kirby said in a statement.
“It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it,” he said.
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.
“To my knowledge, it wasn’t pre-consulted with us that they plan to get these planes to us,” said U.S. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, who told lawmakers she learned of the proposal as she was driving to testify about the Ukraine crisis before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Ukraine has been pleading for more warplanes and Washington has been looking at a proposal under which Poland would supply Ukraine with the Mig29s and in turn receive American F-16s to make up for their loss. Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly the Soviet-era 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 Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to depart for Warsaw for talks with Polish officials. The disconnect is likely to cast an awkward layer to the talks, which were expected to focus largely on U.S. efforts to help Poland and other eastern European nations that have taken in some 2 million refugees since the war started less than two weeks ago.
The handover of Poland’s 28 Soviet-made MiG-29s would signal Western resolve to do more to deter Russia. Militarily, it would be unlikely to be a game-changer. The number of aircraft is relatively small. The MiG-29s also are inferior to more sophisticated Russian aircraft and could be easy prey for Russian pilots and Russian missiles.
Russia has warned that supporting Ukraine’s air force would be seen in Moscow as participating in the conflict and open up suppliers to possible retaliation.
It would also weaken Poland’s own air force at a time of heightened danger in Eastern Europe.
A transfer of the MiGs to Ukraine is fraught with complications as neither NATO nor the European Union want to be seen as directly involved in the transaction, which will significantly raise already extreme tensions with Russia. The U.S. has no plan to directly transfer the planes to Ukraine.
In order to maintain the pretense that NATO and the EU are not direct participants in the Ukraine conflict, U.S. and Polish officials have been considering a variety of options. One begins with the “donation” of Poland’s MiGs to the United States, as Poland announced on Tuesday.
Under one scenario that has been floated, Poland would deliver the fighter jets to the U.S. base in Germany, where they would be repainted and flown to a non-NATO, non-European Union country. Ukrainian pilots would then come to fly them to Ukraine, under that proposal.
No country has been publicly identified as a transit point, but Kosovo, a non-aligned country that is very friendly with the United States, has been mentioned as one of several nations that might be willing to serve as a middleman.
Poland had been asking for the U.S. to provide it with F-16 fighter jets to replace the MiGs.
F-16 production is backlogged, however, and the next recipient in line for new deliveries is Taiwan, which is facing renewed threats from China and has strong support from both parties in Congress.
In its statement, the Polish government specifically asked for “used” planes, a distinction that would allow the Biden administration to bypass congressional opposition to making Taiwan wait to receive its F-16s.
Earlier Tuesday, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said his country would stand by Poland if it handed over the jets, noting that it could face the “direct consequence” of its decision.
“And so we would protect Poland, we’ll help them with anything that they need,” Wallace said on Sky News.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said any decision about delivering offensive weapons must be made unanimously by NATO members.
“This is why we are able to give all of our fleet of jet fighters to Ramstein, but we are not ready to make any moves on our own because … we are not a party to this war,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he believed the aid that Congress hopes to approve later this week for Ukraine will include loan guarantees to help NATO allies replenish their air forces after giving MiGs to Ukraine
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Knickmeyer reported from Washington. AP writer Danica Kirka in London and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
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If they were stealth aircraft the Russians would never know where they came from or what hit them. Just have the pilots pick them up in Switzerland, or maybe Spain, not a bordering country but keep your traps shut about it. If Putin finds out just tell him they were putting on an air show to Celebrate WIlliam Tell’s anniversary. You know WIlliam Tell, the guy to fought off the invading Austrians
When there really was a democrat party, that president would just say “They came from our bases in Shangrala.” Now we have a dummycrat party that’s too stupid to do anything worth while.
Just a thought—do we not have planes that are invisible to radar? If we could disable the Russian power grid perhaps strategize with appropriate air power and incapacitate Russia’s military. I’m just thinking out loud here. I know there are some ex-military men on here who may have an idea of what is and what isn’t workable.
Equipping Ukraine is all fine and good, but Russia is the problem. If we don’t deal with the problem, they will move on to another target later and we will be faced with the same things again.
Unless somehow Putin is disposed of you can almost bet the farm that he won’t be stopping with just Ukraine. He wants to rebuild the old Soviet Union, and to do that he must take over all those countries that formed the old empire. Right now it looks like unless NATO steps in Ukraine is done for and will be controlled by Russia. The fear of NATO and the US that if they were directly involved that Putin would respond by using his nuclear weapons. As unbalanced as he is, even he would realize that if he went nuclear his country would suffer the same fate, and the world would end up in ruins .
AND as long as NATO and the pentagon are too SCARED TO fight the bully Putin, he will KEEP JUST DOING THE SAME THING over and over…
Biden in bed with the Russians. The Ukraine should have been heavily armed many months ago, including aircraft, when the Russians were building up troops along the Ukraine border. Secondly, look at the innocent men, women and children that are being slaughtered (directly targeted by Putin) The elitists in Washington do not care about human life, as they kiss the hand of filthy dictators like Putin, Iranian dictators, the Middle Eastern dictators and the Venezuelan dictator. Look at inflation in our Country and the elitists in Washington have the attitude, let them eat their cake. The middle class is being destroyed by Biden and his communist Democrats. Did you notice the RINOS in the House and Senate are silent, as they are complicit with the Democrats.
This is really a tough situation to deal with, and I blame the millions of idiot voters who put this mentally damaged moron into a position of making strategic decisions that directly impact the safety of every American. First of all we have to realize that Putin is way way out over his skis and his options are limited. We don’t really know the extent of his power in the Russian government. Could he take it upon himself to use nukes against us or Europe? If we knew the answer to that we could make some well considered decisions. But apparently we don’t because the federal agencies that are supposed to provide intelligence to the government have been busy conspiring against and abusing our own population. So we are left with depending upon the deficient Biden and his cadre of Star War bar advisors to make decisions based upon limited knowledge.
I for one am not sure we should be giving the unstable Putin an excuse for going all in. It appears he is far from achieving his military goals and it seems possible that the Ukrainian army (if properly equipped) can do serious damage to Putin’s (not very enthusiastic troops). Let them put some knots on the Russians heads and see if they will quit.
THEN IF we do go to war, SEND THOSE IDIOT VOTERS first!
Millions of voters did not put this feckless excuse for a president into office. This is what happens when an illegitimate president is allowed to steal his way into controlling a country. Only a few more years people, I don’t know how we will make it that long.
Assuming we even DO make it…
Nothing more than the cowardice of this pentagon under the spineless leadership of OBiden the implant.
If the Russian army can’t really defeat the Ukraine’s, then how would they stand against the U.S. Army?? Put the no fly zone in !! I keep saying the new oil Reserves are in the arctic, if we allow Russia to control it ,we will be dealing with them for years
Hmmm………maybe I wasn’t paying attention in my high school history class. I thought George A. Custer died at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Could he have been the sole survivor and was promoted to the pentagon? Sure appears that way.
HE got a name change to general milly!