White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday that the US government’s denial of Poland‘s plan to send fighter planes to Ukraine was taken to avoid “a world war.”
“Our evaluation is based on how a world war can be prevented”, an issue, he explained, present at all times both in the decisions of the Intelligence services, the Pentagon, and the president of the United States, Joe Biden.
In this sense, Psaki has pointed out that Washington is focused on “continuing to support the Ukrainians” by being their “largest provider of military, security and humanitarian assistance”, at the same time that Kyiv is negotiating a negotiated solution to the conflict with Russia.
Despite the fact that the US goal is to “strengthen” and “boost” the Ukrainian forces, Psaki has pointed out that President Biden “has never closed the door on diplomacy.”
On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby reported that the United States had rejected a proposal by the Polish government to allow it to transfer its old Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday conveyed to his Polish counterpart, Mariusz Blaszczak, that he does not support the transfer of warplanes by Poland to US forces for later shipment to Ukraine.
Kirby told a news conference that Austin had a phone call with Blaszczak on Wednesday, thanking him “for Poland’s willingness to continue looking for ways to help Ukraine.”
However, “we do not support at this time the transfer of more combat aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force, and therefore we have no desire to see them in our custody,” Kirby remarked.
On Tuesday, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau announced that Poland was “prepared” to hand over its Russian-made MiG-29 jets “immediately and free of charge” to US forces based at Ramstein airbase (Germany) in exchange for an equivalent number of used, American-made F-16 aircraft.
Upon learning of this offer, which he described as a “surprise move,” Kirby declared yesterday in a statement that accepting such a proposal raised “serious concerns for the entire Atlantic alliance” and concluded that the operation is not “sustainable.”
The spokesman for the US Department of Defense added on Wednesday that the United States rejects this measure because, based on intelligence reports, the transfer of these planes to Ukraine could be taken by Russia as an “escalatory” step and result in “a Russian reaction.” that could increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO”.
Therefore, “we assess the transfer of the MiG-29s to Ukraine as high risk,” he said.
Another of Kirby’s motives is the US belief that the best way to assist Ukraine is to provide it with the weapons and systems it needs to defeat Russia, specifically anti-armour and anti-aircraft defenses.
“Along with other nations we continue to send these weapons to them and we know that they are being used to great effect: they have slowed the Russian advance to the north and the dispute over Ukraine’s airspace is proof of that,” Kirby said.
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