Poland To Send Fighter Jets to Ukraine To Face Russia, the United States and NATO Dare to Follow?

Illustration of Mig 29 Poland. (Wikimedia Commons/Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej)

JAKARTA - Poland on Thursday pledged to deliver four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, the first NATO member to do so, in a significant step in the battle for Kyiv to counter a Russian attack, with the United States and other NATO allies looking to follow suit. Warsaw trail or not.

President Andrzej Duda said the planes, taken from about a dozen planes left by the German Democratic Republic, would be handed over in the coming days after they were repaired.

"Regarding the MiG-29 aircraft, which are still in service to defend Polish airspace, a decision has been taken at the highest level, we can say with confidence that we will deliver MiGs to Ukraine," President Duda said, as quoted by CNN March 17.

Warsaw is known to be one of the leading countries among NATO allies in supplying Kyiv with heavy weapons. Poland's announcement that it will deliver these Soviet-designed planes marks a step beyond other alliance commitments, and could put pressure on other member states to do the same.

On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that deliveries could be made in four to six weeks, citing Reuters.

Polish Mig 29 illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Grzegorz Jereczek)

Other Nato countries have been reluctant to move much beyond a decision earlier this year on sending tanks to Kyiv, while the US insisted Thursday that Poland's move would not force Washington.

Speaking at a press conference in Warsaw with his new Czech counterpart, Petr Pavel, the Polish President expressed the two countries' mutual support for Kyiv.

"The Czech Republic and Poland are countries that are at the forefront of supporting Ukraine, both at the humanitarian and military levels," said President Duda.

Poland was one of the most outspoken European countries against Russia, even before the invasion of Ukraine. Russia is still seen by many in Polish political and diplomatic circles in the context of the Cold War.

Poland is one of the few NATO countries legally obligated to meet a defense spending commitment of 2 percent of its GDP and is an active member of the European defense community.

Delivering the MiGs was not an unexpected step for Poland and is fully compatible with its membership in NATO. This could change the dynamics within the alliance, acting as a catalyst for more countries to do so, or irritating countries opposed to NATO, to become further involved in conflicts such as Hungary.

It is interesting to observe whether this step taken by Poland will put pressure on Britain, the United States, and Germany to do the same thing by sending fighter jets to Ukraine.

Separately, the White House said on Thursday Poland's decision to send the fighter jets was a "sovereign decision" would not encourage President Joe Biden to send US F-16s.

"This doesn't change our calculus with respect to the F-16," explained John Kirby, a senior official at the US National Safety Council.

Polish Mig 29 illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/konflikty.pl)

"This is a sovereign decision for each country to make and we respect that sovereign decision," he continued.

"They can determine not only what they will give, but also how they will characterize it," said Kirby.

"I don't think it's our place to characterize Poland's decision one way or another," Kirby said, declining to judge the decision.

President Biden, who said earlier this year that he would not send US fighter jets to Ukraine, would not be swayed by Poland's decision, Kirby said.

Meanwhile, Slovakia has considered whether to send MiG-29s to Ukraine, but has yet to make a decision.

Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday the debate over the delivery of the fighter jets was ongoing.

"This is something that we are currently discussing in the group of allied countries. This is the great desire of Ukraine," he said.

When asked last week how many MiG-29s Warsaw might supply, head of the presidential office Pawel Szrot said it would "certainly" not be as many as 14.

Previously, US and European officials told CNN that the F-16 fighter jet would be impractical in this situation. Germany ruled out sending fighter jets to Ukraine completely, while British government officials echoed the same sentiment, saying they believed it was impractical to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine.