بولندا مستعدة لوضع مقاتلاتها تحت تصرف واشنطن لدعم أوكرانيا عسكريا وموسكو تحذر من "سيناريو خطر"

أعربت بولندا الثلاثاء عن استعدادها، في خضم الحرب التي تشنها روسيا على أوكرانيا، لوضع طائراتها من طراز ميغ-29 "فورا ومجانا" تحت تصرف الولايات المتحدة ونقلها إلى قاعدة رامشتاين في ألمانيا.

وفي السياق، أفادت وزارة الخارجية البولندية في بيان "سلطات جمهورية بولندا وبعد مشاورات بين الرئيس والحكومة مستعدة لنقل كل طائراتها من طراز ميغ-29 إلى قاعدة رامشتاين ووضعها تحت تصرف حكومة الولايات المتحدة

من جانبه، حض الرئيس الأوكراني فولودومير زيلينسكي الأربعاء الدول الغربية على اتخاذ "قرار بأسرع وقت" بشأن إرسال مقاتلات ميغ-29 وضعتها بولندا تحت التصرف لمساعدة أوكرانيا على مواجهة الغزو الروسي

وقال زيلينسكي في مقطع مصور بث عبر قناته على "تلغرام"، "اتخذوا قرارا في أسرع وقت، أرسلوا إلينا الطائرات" داعيا إلى درس الاقتراح البولندي "فورا". وأعلنت وارسو الثلاثاء أنها وضعت في تصرف واشنطن طائرات ميغ-29 سوفياتية الصنع، لترسلها بعد ذلك إلى كييف لكن واشنطن اعتبرت أن الاقتراح "غير قابل للتطبيق

"سيناريو خطر

في المقابل، ندد الكرملين الأربعاء باقتراح بولندا نقل طائرات ميغ-29 إلى الأمريكيين لترسل بعدها إلى كييف، معتبرا أن هذا الإجراء سيناريو خطر". وقال الناطق باسم الرئاسة الروسية دميتري بيسكوف "هذا سيناريو بغيض وقد يكون خطرا 

واستبعد مسؤولون أمريكيون، بينهم وزير الخارجية  أنتوني بلينكن، احتمال قيام أي دولة من دول حلف شمال الأطلسي بتزويد أوكرانيا المحاصرة بطائرات. لكن بلينكن أكد الأحد خلال زيارته مولدافيا أن الموضوع قيد المناقشة  

وقال الوزير الأمريكي للصحافيين "لا يمكنني التحدث عن جدول زمني، لكن يمكنني القول إننا ندرس الأمر بشكل نشط جدا". وأضاف بأن بلاده تجري "محادثات نشطة للغاية مع مسؤولين أوكرانيين (...) للحصول على تقييم محدث لاحتياجاتهم

جاء ذلك غداة لقاء بين بلينكن ووزير الخارجية الأوكراني دميترو كوليبا عُقد عند الحدود الأوكرانية-البولندية، حض خلالها الأخير الولايات المتحدة على توفير المقاتلات. وتابع كوليبا عقب لقائه نظيره الأمريكي "إذا خسرنا الأجواء، ستسفك دماء أكثر بكثير على الأرض

وفيما لا يزال القسم الأكبر من قدرات سلاح الجو الأوكراني بمنأى عن أي أضرار منذ بداية الحرب في 24 فبراير/شباط، إلا أن البلدين المتحاربين تكبدا خسائر فادحة ولم تتمكن أي منهما من السيطرة بشكل مطلق على أجواء البلاد

The Pentagon on Tuesday rejected Poland's surprise announcement that it would give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine, describing the offer as untenable. 

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Poland's declaration that it intended to deliver the 28 jets to the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of warplanes departing from a US and NATO base to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine conflict. 

“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,” Kirby said in a statement.

The proposed gift of more warplanes would be a morale booster for Ukrainians under pounding Russian assault for nearly two weeks. But it also raises the risk of the war expanding beyond      Russia has declared that supporting Ukraine’s air force would be tantamount to joining the war, and could spur retaliation. 

White House officials were blindsided by the Polish announcement on the MiGs. The proposal did not come up during talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he was recently in Poland, according to a US official familiar with the talks. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said White House officials did not think the proposal would easily solve the logistical challenges of providing aircraft to Ukraine. 

US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told lawmakers at a hearing on the Ukraine crisis Tuesday she learned of Poland's plans only while driving to the hearing. “To my knowledge, it wasn’t pre-consulted with us,” Nuland told senators.   

German officials also said there were no plans for MiGs to be flying out of Ramstein Air Base. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz noted that Germany has given Ukraine financial and humanitarian aid, as well as some weapons. He added: "But it is also true that we have to consider very carefully what we do concretely, and definitely warplanes are not part of that." 

A spokesperson for the foreign ministry added that any decisions needed to be made with the goal of preventing the war in Ukraine from spilling over into NATO. 

Ukraine pleads for warplanes 

The handover of Poland's 28 Soviet-made MiG-29s would be unlikely to be a game-changer militarily. MiG-29s are inferior to more sophisticated Russian aircraft and could be easy prey for Russian pilots and missiles.

Ukraine has been pleading for more warplanes as it resists mightier Russian forces. Washington has been looking at a proposal under which Poland would supply Ukraine with MiG-29s and would receive in exchange American F-16s. Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly the Soviet-era MiG-29s. 

Any MiG transfer would be fraught with complications. Neither NATO nor the European Union wants to be seen as directly involved in such a transaction, which would sharply raise already extreme tensions with Russia. 

To maintain the pretense that NATO and the EU are not direct participants in the Ukraine conflict, US and Polish officials have been considering a variety of options. Under one scenario, Poland would deliver fighter jets to the US base in Germany, where they would be repainted and flown to a non-NATO, non-EU country. Ukrainian pilots would then come to fly them to Ukraine.

No country has been publicly identified as a transit point, but Kosovo, a non-aligned country that is very friendly with the United States, has been mentioned as one of several nations that might be willing to serve as a middle point.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said any decision about delivering offensive weapons must be made unanimously by NATO members

“This is why we are able to give all of our fleet of jet fighters to Ramstein. But we are not ready to make any moves on our own because ... we are not a party to this war,” he said.

Poland publicly floated the plan to donate its MiGs the day before Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to depart for Warsaw for talks with Polish officials. The offer and subsequent US refusal is likely to add an awkward layer to the talks, which were expected to focus largely on US efforts to help Poland and other Eastern European nations struggling to take in some 2 million refugees since the war started. 

A senior US defence official has said Ukrainians are flying relatively few of their existing aircraft, for relatively little time, as it is. The defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the US assessment, said it's possible that Ukraine does not need more planes and would benefit most from more of the weapons it uses effectively every day, including anti-aircraft Stinger and anti-tank Javelin missiles.

The official also said that Russia currently has the capacity to reach almost the entire country of Ukraine with its surface-to-air missiles, including from within Russia and from ships in the Black Sea.