The United States has expressed surprise at Poland ‘s announcement that it was willing to provide its Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine . “To my knowledge, we had not been consulted before,” said Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland during a Senate hearing. “I think it’s a surprise announcement from the Poles,” she added.
Poland had reported on Tuesday that it is making all its MigG-29 fighter jets, some 28 , available to the United States Army for ” free ” so that they can be used by Ukrainian pilots in the ongoing conflict that maintains with Russia.
The statement from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that the fighters will set course “immediately” to the base that the United States has in the German town of Ramstein and, in exchange, has asked Washington to provide them with “used aircraft with the operational capabilities corresponding”.
“Poland is ready to immediately establish the purchase conditions” for these replacement aircraft, which would be US F-16 fighters, Alliance sources have revealed. The Foreign Affairs text also encourages the rest of NATO partners to follow the Polish example. The decision of this delivery by Poland is made at the expense of NATO , which already ruled out a week ago sending any type of combat aircraft to Ukraine to prevent the Alliance from being part of the conflict, as expressed by its Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg.