Kyiv claims US has ‘no objections’ to Poland supplying war planes

Ukrainian foreign minister says Washington has changed tack after earlier rejecting transfer of jets as too ‘high risk’

By AFP 27 March 2022, 2:49 am 1 Edit

Two Polish Air Force Russian made Mig-29s fly above and below two Polish Air Force US-made F-16 fighter jets during an air show in Radom, Poland, August 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz, File)

Ukraine said Saturday that the United States does not object to the transfer of war planes to Kyiv to help it fend off the Russian invasion, after the Pentagon previously rejected an offer from Poland.

Officials in Washington “have no objections to the transfer of aircrafts. As far as we can conclude, the ball is now on the Polish side. We will look further into this matter in our conversations with Polish colleagues,” Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in written comments to AFP.

There was no immediate confirmation from the White House.

His comments came shortly after a meeting in Poland with Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and US President Joe Biden, who was visiting the NATO member to shore up US support for the country bordering Ukraine.

The Pentagon earlier this month conclusively rejected as too “high risk” a plan to transfer fighter jets from Poland to Kyiv to battle Russian forces, pouring cold water for now on Ukraine’s bid for more firepower in the skies.

“Ukraine is in a critical need for more combat aircraft,” Kuleba said in the comments, saying Kyiv needed them to “strike a balance in the sky” and prevent Russia from “killing more civilians.”

Warsaw had expressed support for a plan in which Poland would have sent its Soviet-era MiG-29s to Kyiv via a US air base in Ramstein, Germany.