Poland will send four of its Mig-29s to Ukraine, the Polish president announced on Thursday. “It does not change our analysis,” said John Kirby, a White House spokesman.
Poland will deliver a first batch of four MiG-29 fighter-bombers to Ukraine, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced on Thursday. which will be the first delivery of this type by a NATO member.
“In the coming days, we will first transfer (…) four fully operational aircraft to Ukraine,” Andrzej Duda told reporters.
kyiv has repeatedly asked its Western allies to send it modern fighter-bombers, hoping to get American F-16s. The Polish decision “does not change anything”, however, to the American refusal to do the same, assured John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House shortly after.
“This does not change our analysis”
“It doesn’t change our analysis. (…) It’s not on the table,” he told reporters, recalling that President Joe Biden had publicly opposed the delivery of combat aircraft to Ukraine.
Reacting to Warsaw’s announcement, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said: “MiGs will not solve problems, we need F-16s. But MiGs will help strengthen our capacities”.
Russia did not react immediately to the Polish announcement, but the Kremlin repeated several times that Western arms deliveries to Kiev would only prolong the conflict and the “suffering” of the civilian population, without changing Moscow’s “military objectives” in Ukraine.
