Old Soviet planes to help Ukraine stop Russian aggression. The Polish government announced on Tuesday a paradoxical military pirouette: its intention to transfer to the base that the United States has in Ramstein (Germany) all its MiG-29 fighters, made by the Soviet Union, so that they can be put “immediately and without cost” to arrangement of Ukraine’s defense. It is estimated that they add about 28 units. Washington showed its doubts about it. “It’s not clear to us that there is a good enough reason to do so,” said John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman. “We will remain in contact with Poland and our other NATO allies to discuss this matter and the difficult logistical challenges it represents, but we do not believe that Poland’s proposal is tenable.” The US defense spokesman assured, however, that if Poland wants to transfer combat aircraft to Ukraine it is “a decision of its own government.” The initiative has run into a warning from Russia this Wednesday: that delivery of planes would lead to a “dangerous scenario”.
Warsaw demanded that used US aircraft of “a corresponding operational capacity” be handed over to them in return. This was announced on social networks by the head of Polish Foreign Affairs, Zbigniew Rau, after his prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, denied on Monday that Poland had the intention of directly transferring these combat aircraft to Ukraine.
The gesture had caught Washington by surprise, as recognized by the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, the third authority in US diplomacy, during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But he was responding to the aspirations expressed by the United States and the United Kingdom in recent weeks, in which they have pressed for NATO countries that possess Soviet-made fighter planes (that is: Bulgaria and Slovakia, as well as Poland) to make available to the Ukrainian air force. It is a plea that Kiev has also joined on several occasions. The interest that these fighters are one of the great symbols of the Cold War, and not others, lies in the fact that they are the aircraft with which Ukrainian pilots have learned to fly.
A few hours after the offer, Russia warned on Wednesday that it would create a “dangerous scenario”. “It is a very undesirable and dangerous scenario,” said the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov.
Warsaw changed its tune in the face of intelligence reports predicting an escalation of the offensive by the Russian army now that the war is nearing its third week. And he does so after days of refusing the loan, for fear that his decision would be seen as a beautiful case by Vladimir Putin. Poland also encourages the other countries to “do the same”. On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that countries wishing to do so had Washington’s permission.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky launched a “desperate request for European countries to provide Russian-made aircraft” to fight Russian invaders during a video call with US lawmakers on Saturday. He also asked that the United States stop buying Russian crude, a wish that was granted on Tuesday. Congressmen have since pressed the Biden administration to facilitate the transfer of those fighter jets.
Poland, a NATO member, shares a border with Ukraine. Nuland added Tuesday on the Senate floor that Washington was also studying the possibility of placing some Patriot missile batteries in the eastern European country.
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