Unexpected Proposal to Donate MiG-29 Fighter Jets to Ukraine Surprises US Officials
An offer from Poland to donate MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine caught US officials off guard on Tuesday.
The MiG-29 jets are air-superiority fighter jets, capable of conducting close-air-support missions as well. The MiG-29 has several external hardpoints and can carry up to two R-27 air-to-air medium-range missiles, six R-73 and R-60 air-to-air short-range missiles, four pods of S-5, S-8, S-24 unguided rockets, and dumb bombs weighing up to 6,600 pounds. It also features a 30mm gun with 150 rounds of ammunition.
The Pentagon rejected Poland’s surprise announcement that it would give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine, describing the offer as untenable.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said, “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.”
The Pentagon went further on Wednesday, saying it would oppose any plan for NATO nations to provide fighter jets to Ukraine, calling it “high-risk.”
The proposed gift of more warplanes would be a morale booster for Ukrainians but…
The proposal did not come up during talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he was recently in Poland, according to a US official familiar with the talks. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said White House officials did not think the proposal would easily solve the logistical challenges of providing aircraft to Ukraine.
German officials also said there were no plans for MiGs to be flying out of Ramstein Air Base.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz noted that Germany has given Ukraine financial and humanitarian aid, as well as some weapons. He added, “But it is also true that we have to consider very carefully what we do concretely, and definitely warplanes are not part of that.”
An American F-16 Fighting Falcon flies in formation with a Polish MiG-29 Fulcrum during training.
Ukraine Pleads for Warplanes
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called again on Wednesday for Western powers to urgently make a decision on the fighter jets.
Zelensky said in a video on his Telegram channel, “We ask you again to decide as soon as possible. Send us planes.”
But the handover of Poland’s 28 Soviet-made MiG-29s would be unlikely to be a game-changer militarily.
Ukraine has been pleading for more warplanes. Washington has been looking at a proposal under which Poland would supply Ukraine with MiG-29s and would receive in exchange American F-16s. Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly the Soviet-era MiG-29s.
Under one scenario, Poland would deliver fighter jets to the US base in Germany, where they would be refurbished and flown to a non-NATO, non-EU country. Ukrainian pilots would then come to fly them to Ukraine.
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 middle point.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that 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.
Poland publicly floated the plan to donate its MiGs the day before Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to depart for Warsaw for talks with Polish officials. The offer and the subsequent US refusal are likely to add an awkward layer to the talks, which were expected to focus largely on US efforts to help Poland and other Eastern European nations struggling to take in some 2 million refugees since the war started.
A senior US defense official has said Ukrainians are flying relatively few of their existing aircraft, for relatively little time, as it is. The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the US assessment, said it’s possible that Ukraine does not need more planes and would benefit most from more of the weapons it uses effectively every day, including anti-aircraft Stingers and anti-tank Javelin missiles.
