Pentagon says Poland's jet offer for Ukraine 'not tenable'

The Pentagon says Poland’s offer to give its MiG-29 fighter jets to the U_S_ so they can be passed to Ukraine raises serious concerns for the NATO alliance and the plan is not “a tenable one.”

WARSAW, Poland -- The Pentagon on Tuesday rejected Poland’s offer to give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine, in a rare public display of disharmony by NATO allies seeking to boost Ukrainian fighters while avoiding getting caught up in a wider war with Russia.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Poland's proposal earlier Tuesday to deliver the jets to the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of jets departing from a U.S. and NATO base to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine war.

“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.

“It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it," he said.