The Pentagon closed the door on a proposal by Poland to transfer its MiG-29 fighters to a U.S. air base in Germany, from where they could be flown to Ukraine.
Kirby pointed to three reasons that Austin had rejected the offer, starting with the view that it is better to provide Ukraine with the weapons"they need most to defeat Russian aggression," particularly anti-armor and air defense systems.
Kirby went on to say that the Ukrainian Air Force has"several squadrons of fully mission capable aircraft." Finally, the U.S. intelligence community has assessed that transferring MiG fighters to Ukraine"may be mistaken as escalatory" and"could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with," Kirby said."Therefore, we also assess the transfer of the MiG-29s to Ukraine to be high risk."
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