US working with Poland to back Ukraine with jets
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States is working on a deal with Poland to supply Ukraine with jets amid Russia’s invasion.
“We are looking actively now at the question of airplanes that Poland may provide to Ukraine and looking at how we might be able to backfill, should Poland decide to supply those planes”. I can’t speak to a timeline but i can just say we are looking at it very very actively”.
His comments came after Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a call on Saturday with US Congress members, asked Washington to facilitate the transfer of used Russian planes from Eastern European allies.
Multiple news outlets, meanwhile, reported that the US and Poland are working together to provide Polish Soviet-era war planes to Ukraine.
Ukrainian military pilots are trained on Russian-made war planes.
But the Associated Press news agency reported that there appeared to be a logistical problem in sending F-16s to Poland or other Eastern European allies because of a production backlog.
“These countries would essentially have to give their MiGs to the Ukrainians and accept an IOU from the US for the F-16s. The situation is further complicated because the next shipment of F-16s is set for Taiwan and Congress would be reluctant to delay those deliveries as it eyes China”, it said.
