Reuters: Poland says NATO countries must act together on jets for Ukraine

Any supply of fighter jets to Ukraine must be done through NATO, Reuters has cited a top Polish official as saying on Wednesday, after Washington rejected Poland’s offer to fly all its MIG-29 jets to a U.S. airbase with a view to them being supplied to Kyiv.

Ukraine has pleaded with Western nations to provide it with fighter jets to counter a Russian invasion that has forced more than 2 million refugees to flee the country, and U.S. lawmakers have responded by pushing President Joe Biden’s administration to facilitate the transfer of aircraft, Reuters says.

On Tuesday, Poland said it was ready to deploy all its MIG-29 jets to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and put them at the disposal of the United States, urging other NATO members to do the same.

The Pentagon later dismissed the offer as not “tenable”.

“The USA does not want these planes to come to Ukraine from American bases,” Jakub Kumoch, the Polish president’s foreign affairs advisor, told public broadcaster TVP Info.

“Poland is ready to act, but only within the framework of the alliance, within the framework of NATO.”