U.S. "actively" working with Poland on deal to send fighter jets to Ukraine

The war for control of Ukraine will be waged in the air, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told U.S. lawmakers Saturday, and therefore, he implored them to give him planes to keep Russia at bay. The U.S. is urging Poland and other Eastern European countries to give their Russian-made fighter jets to Ukraine and is working on a plan to backfill the planes they give up with U.S.F-16s. 

One advantage of the Russian planes is that Ukrainian pilots are already trained to fly them. 

The other reason is that these planes can be deployed far more quickly. One U.S. official said the administration has told Poland it should make Russian-made MiGs in its arsenal available because these planes would not require U.S. permission to be transferred. Conversely, any effort to send newly manufactured planes to Ukraine could be hampered by several years' worth of paperwork with defense contractors. Further, the transfer of American-made F-16 fighter jets from NATO allies would require congressional notification. Because Ukrainian pilots are not trained on American planes, the fighter jets would not be immediately helpful to them, even if they were able to obtain them sooner.