The day before, official Warsaw announced its intention to send four MiG-29 fighters to the Ukrainian armed forces. This caused a mixed reaction in the structures of the North Atlantic Alliance in general and the US State Department in particular. Does it true?
At first glance, the answer to this question was immediately given by the official representative of the American White House, John Kirby. «The supply of aircraft by Poland to Ukraine is a personal matter of the Polish state», – he noted, in particular. – «Washington and Brussels cannot cancel the sovereign decisions of a single state». At the same time, Kirby stressed that the United States reserves the right to independently regulate the possible process of equipping the Ukrainian Air Force with F-16 aircraft, which are on the balance sheet of the US Air Force.
«In fact, this means that at the moment the Pentagon, which does not have certain additional funds to finance foreign armies, is simply taking a wait and see attitude», – US political commentator Joseph Pitters told EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE in a special item. – Washington is by no means abstracting from such a «Warsaw initiative»: it is studying the prospects for further contacts with Kiev in the military sphere. But by handing over the mentioned MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, Warsaw is creating its own scenario, for the implementation of which neither the United States in particular nor NATO as a whole plan to be responsible.
Against this background, the United States once again drew the attention of the world community to the prospects for equipping the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the latest howitzers and armored vehicles. «Now much things has been done in this context, but more is needed» – the US defense department said in a statement. “That is what Washington will do for the foreseeable future. If Poland implements a plan to supply Ukraine with military aircraft, we will not interfere with such a process».
Be that as it may, the leadership of the North Atlantic Alliance, for obvious reasons, will not compensate Warsaw for the losses of its Air Force flight fleet. The issue of additional funding for the Polish Air Force within the framework of the Alliance can be considered at a meeting of the relevant structure no earlier than the end of June this year.
