A snag in the plane swap plan

The US and Europe have worked hard to keep their differences over sanctions and oil embargos to a public minimum, and tried to accommodate each other’s national interests. So it was striking on Tuesday when first the Pentagon described a Polish offer to send planes to the US airbase in Ramstein as “untenable”, and then the deputy US secretary of state said the US had not been consulted about the plan.

Part of the problem was that the Polish proposal was subtly but critically different to a scheme that had previously been discussed in private.

[...]

In essence, Poland said it would cooperate in strengthening the Ukrainian air force so long as this would be seen in Moscow as a US, Nato or EU scheme but not a Polish one.

  Guardian

Understandable to a point. But Poland does have NATO backing should Russia attack them.

In its original, US-conceived iteration, the proposal was a trilateral deal whereby Poland would hand over the MiGs to Ukrainian pilots to fly into their homeland, and the US would then provide some substitute planes.

[...]

That proposal, arguably, was not qualitatively different to Nato members providing Ukraine with Javelin anti-tank missiles. In return, Poland would eventually fill the hole in its air force with 28 F-16s being provided by the US.

But under private pressure from the US, Poland felt the plan unduly exposed its citizens to Putin’s ire. So instead, in a game of diplomatic pass the parcel, Poland tweaked the proposals so the planes would be sent free of charge to the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, rather than being flown out of Poland into Ukraine.

[...]

Poland also suggested other frontline Nato countries with MiG planes should match its plan, a proposal directed at Slovakia and Romania. If executed it would mean Ukraine had 70 extra planes at its disposal.

The Pentagon’s response – “it is simply not clear to us that there is a tangible justification for this” – was swift. Passing the parcel back, it said any decision to hand over planes ultimately rested with the Polish government.

Honestly people, Ukraine is being destroyed. They need the planes and this haggling over who should take the blame is in effect helping Russia get that job done.

Ukrainian pilots who were being trained in Poland to fly the planes are now grounded with no machines with which to defend their country. An opportunity has been squandered.

Exactly. Shameful.

The possibility of making the MiG-29s available first appeared publicly on 27 February, when the EU made the unprecedented decision to provide military aid to a country outside the bloc. The first tranche of equipment for Ukraine is expected to amount to €500m (£417m), but up to €5bn is to be spent under the European Peace Initiative.

It was then that the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that aid for Kyiv would also include offensive weapons, including planes.

[...]

The US has provided Poland with two Patriot defence missiles. Each battery consists of two firing platoons with two launchers. This means there will be 16 launchers in Poland. They can have either four or six missiles. The latest Pac-3 MSE missiles are capable of shooting down the Russian Iskander ballistic and manoeuvring missiles.

Good for Poland. But what about Ukraine? Apparently, they're just on their own against a powerful invader. All those times we claimed we were going in to other countries with weapons and soldiers because we're so concerned about democracy across the globe. We don't even seem to be that fucking concerned about retaining our own.

And really, at this point, who thinks Putin is behaving in a rational manner? Not to mention, the concerned countries have already signaled their support for Ukraine in many other ways, so it's not like he doesn't know who's helping whom. 

Get the goddamned planes to the Ukrainians now.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  I need to state that I understand sending fighter planes to Ukraine could escalate the war to include NATO members.  Nobody wants that.  But we damned well owe the Ukrainians, because...

Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and the UK signed a 1994 treaty that assured Ukraine it would be safe from attack as long as it gave up its massive stockpile of nukes.

  Kens5

We are a party to that treaty.

UPDATE: