From WAPO
Not so fast with the jets.
Of course this is WAPO so take that into consideration.
01:21 PM: E.U. unlikely to send fighter jets to Ukraine, despite earlier vow
E.U. nations are probably not about to send fighter jets to Ukraine, despite a senior E.U. official's vow that aircraft would be among the military aid the bloc planned to send to Kyiv, officials said Tuesday.
The rowed-back promise echoed a sense that the bloc was not able to help Ukraine at the speed its leaders are demanding, as Russian forces encircle some of the country's biggest cities. Zelensky issued an emotional plea to the European Parliament on Tuesday for E.U. membership — also a step that the bloc is entertaining but that is far from resolved.
Inside a closed-door meeting on Sunday of E.U. foreign ministers, E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had put forward Bulgaria, Slovakia and Poland as countries that might send fighter jets to Ukraine, since all three countries have the Russian-made MiG-29s that are more compatible with the Ukrainian military than Western planes, according to officials familiar with the discussion.
But Bulgarian and Slovak leaders have now said that they do not plan to send fighter jets to Ukraine, despite Borrell's declaration after the meeting that military aircraft would be among the lethal aid paid for by a new $555 million E.U. military fund that was approved by foreign ministers that day. Borrell did not identify the countries publicly.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said Tuesday that his country also did not intend to send jets to Ukraine, though he appeared to leave a touch of ambiguity about the possibility.
"We are not sending any jets to Ukraine because that would open a military interference in the Ukrainian conflict. We are not joining that conflict," Duda told reporters. "We are not going to send any jets to the Ukrainian airspace."
It was not clear if he was intentionally leaving open the possibility that the Ukrainians could pick jets up in Poland or that aircraft could be transported over land to the Ukrainian border. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Borrell on Sunday said at a news conference that the European Union planned "to supply arms and even fighter jets. We are not talking just about ammunition. We are providing the most important arms to go to war."
The idea of sending fighter jets to Ukraine had been discussed in meetings earlier that day, but nothing was finalized, according to an E.U. diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private meetings.
But Borrell's announcement — which came in response to a question about how the aid was going to get into Ukraine, not in his prepared remarks — came as a surprise.