Ukraine offered jets by Poland

Poland is ready to hand its fleet of MiG-29s to Zelensky’s government in major escalation of Ukraine crisis.

Mig-29 fighter jets. Picture: Supplied

Poland is ready to hand over its fleet of MiG-29 fighter jets to President Zelensky’s government in a significant escalation of the Ukraine crisis.

The 28 Soviet-era jets, which Ukrainian pilots are already trained to fly, will be delivered to Ramstein US airbase in Germany and will be made available to the US “immediately and free of charge”, Warsaw said last night. It will then be up to the Americans to give the jets to the Ukrainian air force.

If approved, it would mean NATO aircraft, flown by Ukrainian pilots, going into combat with Russian forces, potentially dragging the alliance into confrontation with Moscow.

However, the US indicated last night that it was not yet ready to take such a drastic step.

“We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one,” John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said.

A Bulgarian Air Force MiG-29. Picture: Getty Images

In other developments:

– President Xi of China told President Macron of France and Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, that he supported “peace efforts” in Ukraine, in an apparent departure from his previous backing for President Putin.

– Britain and the United States announced a ban on imports of Russian oil and oil products, which is likely to increase petrol and diesel prices.

– Military cargo planes took weapons and ammunition to an undisclosed airfield near the Ukrainian border.

– The number of refugees fleeing the invasion has now passed two million, according to the UN refugee agency.

– Priti Patel, the home secretary, faced a backlash from Conservative MPs and the cabinet over what one minister called the Home Office’s “inept and bureaucratic” response to the crisis.

– McDonald’s said that it would temporarily close its restaurants in Russia in response to the “unspeakable suffering of innocent people” caused by the invasion. Coca-Cola and Starbucks also suspended their operations there.

The Polish foreign ministry said that the jets would be placed “at the disposal of the government of the United States of America”, adding: “The Polish government also requests other NATO allies, owners of MiG-29 jets, to act in the same vein.”

Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister, said: “We have always stressed that Poland is not part of this war, NATO is not part of this war, and that’s why any decisions on the supply of offensive weapons should be taken unanimously by the entire alliance.

“That’s why we are ready to hand over our entire fleet of fighter jets to the [US airbase] in Ramstein, but we are not ready to make any moves on our own.”

Poland hopes to be given American F-16 warplanes in return.

Arvydas Anusauskas, the Lithuanian defence minister, tweeted: “Poland is ready to hand over all of its MiG-29 aircraft to the United States government disposal for a likely transfer to Ukraine.”

Only a few NATO countries still operate MiG-29s, including Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

The Polish announcement was made hours after Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, warned that Russia could attack Poland if it handed over its aircraft directly to Ukraine.

The “blowback” would be against the Polish people, he said, adding that it was a “really big responsibility” on the shoulders of the Polish president.

Wallace told Sky News: “Poland will understand that the choices it makes will not only directly help Ukraine, which is a good thing, but also may bring them into direct line of fire from countries such as Russia or Belarus.”

It's happening.

Poland is ready to hand over all of its MIG-29 aircraft to the United States Government disposal for a likely transfer to Ukraine.

The Polish government is also asking other NATO countries, which have MIG-29 aircraft, to do likewise.

— Arvydas AnuÅ¡auskas (@a_anusauskas) March 8, 2022

He said there was a need for countries to increase lethal aid supplies to Ukraine, whether anti-tank missiles, anti-air systems or other weapons.

However, he said that Britain needed to “tread a very fine line between how we make sure we maximise the defence of Ukraine without triggering a wider war in Europe, and indeed without putting at risk the United Kingdom from an escalation”.

He said he wished the UK could do more but that he was “acutely aware” that Putin “seems to have no limit to the humanitarian grief and murder he can inflict on a country, and we have to calibrate our response correctly”.

He told Times Radio that it would take “decades” and cost thousands of Russian lives to occupy Ukraine. “It could potentially break the Russian army,” he said, adding that Putin was a “spent force in the world and he’s done – his army is done, he is done”.

Other countries could lend aircraft to Ukraine but it would take at least two months for its pilots to be trained to fly them. Ukrainian military sources told The Times this week that there were “tens” of pilots without planes and the Polish jets would be “very useful”.

Professor Michael Clarke, a former director of the think tank Rusi, said the jets would be well maintained and have modern features. Justin Bronk, an air power analyst at Rusi, said the proposed move would be “highly politically significant as a symbolic indicator for both the Ukrainian and Russian governments of how far the West is prepared to go in supporting Ukraine”.

He added: “However, the cockpit layout and weapons switchology in Polish Mig-29s likely differs sufficiently [and] Ukrainian pilots trained on Ukrainian Mig-29s would need several weeks of conversion training at least to be combat-effective in the Polish jets.”

Justin Crump, of Sibylline, an intelligence and geopolitical risk firm, said there were questions about how and where the aircraft would be delivered. “The nation that is last in the chain, even if using a front company or similar legal guise, would clearly be at potential risk of escalation from the Russians,” he said.

US spy agencies said Putin might “double down”, setting up “an ugly next few weeks”. They estimated that 2,000 to 4,000 Russian troops had died and said sanctions were hurting, but the situation could be far worse for Ukrainians as food and water in Kyiv could run out in two weeks. “Our analysts assess that Putin is unlikely to be deterred by such setbacks and instead may escalate,” Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, told the House of Representatives intelligence committee.

William Burns, director of the CIA, said: “Putin is angry and frustrated. He’s likely to try to grind down the Ukrainian military . . . I fail to see how he can produce that kind of an end game and where that leads, I think, is for an ugly next few weeks.”

The Times