Russian Fighter Jet Shoots House - After the wrong opinions, fast talk and sharp announcements, the plan to send fighter jets to Ukraine is no more.
Polish Air Force, Russian MiG-29 fly over and under Polish fighter jets, US F-16 fighter jets during an air show. | Alik Keplicz/AP Photo
Russian Fighter Jet Shoots House
A tripartite fighter jet deal to bolster Ukraine's defenses against Russia has died, five days after the White House revealed an open plan to implement it.
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Kyiv has asked U.S. officials for more military aid, with Ukraine's potential to collect MiG fighter jets gaining global attention this past week as the country battles Russian invasion forces. But after several public statements, diplomatic messages and sharp offers to replace Russian planes with American ones, it all fell apart.
The saga that began 11 days ago with a mistaken comment by a top European Union diplomat ended without concern when the Pentagon's top spokesman and the head of the US European Union Command announced on Wednesday that the US would not participate in the deal to hand them over. with fighter jets. After Poland sent its ships to Ukraine.
"At this time we do not support the transfer of these fighters to the Ukrainian air force and we have no desire to see them under our watch," John Kirby told reporters, relaying the gist of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's call on Wednesday. and his Polish counterpart. He added that the Pentagon and the US intelligence community had assessed that the fighter jets would not improve Ukraine's chances, but rather increase the possibility of drawing NATO directly into the conflict.
Officials in Kiev, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Zoom call with US lawmakers over the weekend, have pushed for European fighter jets, saying the push would help Russian forces deal more damage. Videos posted on social media over two weeks of fighting have shown the invading army massed in large, slow-moving columns blocking roads, while Ukrainian Turkish drones and ground troops with Javelin missiles have driven back hundreds of Russian vehicles. fire shells
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But skeptics in the Biden administration pushed back on the idea of transferring Polish MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, and President Joe Biden backed those criticisms, three U.S. officials said.
"POTUS is going to do what the military advises here and the advice now is not to do this and instead send more things to the Ukrainian government that they can put to good use," the senior administration official said. Ukraine "already has a lot of very inactive aircraft due to Russian air defenses." The official added that "it is not clear what is achieved by sending more planes".
The list of objections is long, from the process of obtaining more than 28 fighter jets on the Ukrainian border to the thorny issue of flying fighter jets from a NATO country into a war zone, which some officials believe would further strain the alliance. rather than a participant in the fight. The administration sees this open support as more offensive than the anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles pouring into Ukraine from Poland and Romania.
The move would have been possible if the deal had been kept secret, but that became unlikely after EU foreign and security policy chief Josep Borrell publicly announced to reporters on February 27 that the bloc would supply fighter jets to Ukraine. . The announcement surprised many, US and European officials said, including supporters in Eastern European capitals who had hoped to keep the transfer quiet.
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But the Ukrainian government heard the proposal and ran with it, releasing infographics about the acquisition of 70 used Russian fighter jets from Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria. A Ukrainian government official said the Ukrainian pilots had flown to Poland to finalize the plan and return the plane to the border.
However, the Borrell camp, apart from the countries responsible for supplying these aircraft, have never agreed to this plan.
The agreement appeared to be suspended on March 2 by Polish President Andrzej Duda, who made it clear that Polish planes would not enter Ukrainian airspace. The governments of Slovakia and Bulgaria said they would not export MiGs to Ukraine either.
It was reported on Saturday that the White House was considering a three-pronged plan: Poland would send MiG-29s to Ukraine, and America would send F-16s to Poland to replace those provided by Warsaw.
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He said Poland has the "green light" to send its warplanes. "In fact, we are talking to our Polish friends right now about what we can do to meet their needs if they decide to give these fighter jets to the Ukrainians."
Five US officials said there was general agreement within the administration that Washington should work with Warsaw to help Ukraine. But Pentagon and intelligence community officials opposed the tripartite plan, in part because they feared the move would bring NATO—and thus the United States—into direct confrontation with Russia. Additionally, the Pentagon expressed concern that the F-16s needed to return to Poland would have to be significantly downsized so as not to affect highly classified avionics systems installed on the planes.
Biden, to three US officials, agreed with the Pentagon's cautious approach to intelligence, in part because Russia would see the US sending NATO warplanes to Ukraine as an escalation.
However, the White House made it clear to Poland that the US will not oppose an independent decision to deploy fighter jets if it decides to do so. What the administration could not guarantee was a quick delivery of replacement F-16s, telling Warsaw that approving the transfer could be a months-long process.
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To break the deadlock, Poland turned to the Hail Mary. In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, the Polish government said it was ready to transfer 28 of its MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States. to hand over to Ukrainian pilots fighting the Russian invasion.
"The proposal came out of something that the EU partners would have looked at for the last iteration of what we were going to do with the agency. It's a far cry from where we were a couple of weeks ago," a senior State Department official said. said the officer.
"As far as I know, we were not advised in advance that they intended to deliver these planes," Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. "I was in a meeting that I should have known before I came. So I think it was a surprise move by the Poles.
The administration moved quickly to shut down Poland's bid. "We will continue to consult with the Poles and other NATO partners on this issue and the complex logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland's proposal is sustainable," Pentagon spokesman Kirby said Tuesday night.
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Washington's tone changed abruptly on Wednesday, the same day German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Polish warplanes would not “definitely” settle Ramstein. "We could be somewhere else if the Poles didn't put this on the table," said a senior State official.
Blinken told reporters that the U.S. is still open to a deal, but Poland is the only one that can send "security assistance" to Ukraine "in a proper way." White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily press briefing that the US had "understandable concerns" about Poland's proposal.
And then Kirby took the stage at the Pentagon to tell the press - but actually Poland - that the US would not do the deal, and listed all the reasons why sending extra MiGs to Ukraine was a bad idea. He also noted that there is no consensus between the positions of the State Department and the Pentagon on the issue, saying that they all agreed that it was not America's place to tell Poland "what to do or not to do."
"The transfer of the MiG-29 aircraft will not increase the effectiveness of the Ukrainian Air Force. The Ukrainian Air Force currently has many serviceable aircraft that fly daily. Adding aircraft to the Ukrainian inventory is unlikely to change the effectiveness of the Air Force. "Ukrainian airspace in relation to Russian capabilities. Therefore, we assess the overall benefit to be small," he said in a statement.
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Officials in Warsaw, already dealing with a flood of Ukrainian refugees and acting as a major hub for Western arms to Ukraine, did not want to go it alone by sending planes.
Appearing alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in Warsaw on Thursday, Polish President Duda said his government "wanted the entire NATO to make a joint decision" on the planes, so that "Poland remains a reliable member of NATO, not a country to decide. "On key issues affecting NATO's security.
The Pentagon is worried about Moscow's response
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