Why Washington refused to transfer Polish MiG-29 aircraft to Kiev
Poland has declared its readiness to transfer all its MiG-29 fighters to the United States so that they can go to help Ukraine from an American air base in Germany. The US rejected this initiative. "Newspaper.Ru" figured out what the meaning of this proposal is and why Warsaw was refused
"The authorities of the Republic of Poland, after consultations between the President and the Government, are ready to deploy all their MiG-29 fighters at Ramstein Airbase immediately and free of charge and place them at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America. At the same time, Poland asks the United States to provide us with used aircraft with appropriate operational capabilities," the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the United States does not support the transfer of Polish fighters to Ukraine.
"The alternative options here are to work with other allies and partners who may have additional systems and capabilities in the field of air defense that can provide them to Ukraine. We are having discussions with many countries about this," Kirby said.
According to White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, "you don't need to be a military expert to explain why the departure of a plane from a US base to a disputed part of the country where there is a war is not in our interests, not in the interests of NATO." Psaki also noted that in order to transport aircraft from Poland to Ukraine by land, they would have to be disassembled and reassembled, which requires specialists with appropriate qualifications.
The head of the US State Department, Anthony Blinken, in turn, said that the United States did not understand why Poland wanted to send the MiG-29 to Ukraine, handing them over to the United States first.
"Polish MiG-29s are old-style aircraft, it is clear that in order to put aviation equipment anywhere, it must first be serviced. The manufacturer of MiGs is the Russian corporation "MiG", only it can carry out their modernization. Since Poland has long been classified as not entirely friendly states, there are great doubts that their fighters were serviced. Probably, the United States refused Poland's offer because they do not have the ability to bring these aircraft to operational suitability," he told the newspaper.Ru" former head of the 4th Directorate of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Rear Admiral Mikhail Chekmasov.
According to military expert, Vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Konstantin Sokolov, now that the Russian Air Force fully controls the skies of Ukraine, such deliveries are impossible.
"The new fighters simply have nothing to take off from - the Russian military destroyed Ukrainian airfields. If they fly, for example, from the airfields of Poland, then it will automatically become a participant in the conflict, and with it the entire NATO bloc. In this case, we are talking about an American air base in Germany - the result of their use to help Ukraine will be similar," Sokolov believes.
Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy head of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, believes that there is "no need to talk about the logic in Poland's proposals to send fighters to help Ukraine through the United States."
"It is not clear what prevents Poland from directly transferring fighters to Ukraine. Maybe they think that Russia will be very offended by this. In general, this is a situation in which hardly any logical definitions make sense," the expert said.
"I would draw attention to the fact that the proposal contains not only a request for complex logistics through the Ramstein base, but also a request to provide the Poles with used American aircraft with appropriate operational capabilities instead. They don't officially say the name. The closest analogues of this machine can be considered the upgraded F-16C Block 50. At the same time, it is obviously more expensive and newer. You can argue about the characteristics. But from a purely business point of view, Warsaw is winning. Updates its combat aviation fleet. Thus, Poland did not want to help Ukraine, but to earn money. At a minimum: not only to help, but also to make money on it. This shocked Washington," Volkov believes.
Irina Alshaenva