Poland says it's 'ready' to hand over all its MiG-29 fighter jets to US air base in Germany
Poland announced Tuesday it is "ready" to "immediately" hand over all its MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. air base in Germany to boost Ukraine's fight against Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked the West and NATO to supply Ukraine with fighter jets.
The Polish government said in a statement that will provide its Russian-made MiGs to the Rammstein Air Base "free of charge," placing them "at the disposal" of the U.S. government, and asked the United States to backfill them "with used aircrafts with corresponding operational capabilities."
"The Polish Government also requests other NATO Allies -- owners of MiG-29 jets -- to act in the same vein," the statement added.
A senior U.S. defense official told ABC News: "We have seen the Polish government’s announcement and have nothing to offer at this time."
![](https://s.abcnews.com/images/International/mig2-f16s-ap-ps-220308_1646769381731_hpEmbed_8x5_992.jpg)
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State told ABC News they are working with the Polish government and consulting with NATO allies on this.
"This is Poland's sovereign decision to make. We have in no way opposed Poland transferring planes to Ukraine. There are a number of challenging practical question," the spokesperson said. "In the meantime, we continue to surge security assistance for Ukraine and deliveries are ongoing."
A senior U.S. diplomat told ABC News that the U.S. was not "pre-consulted" on this news. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she found out about Poland's announcement while driving to Capitol Hill to testify.
"To my knowledge, it wasn't pre-consulted with us that they plan to give these planes to us, but as you know, we have been having consultations with them for a couple of days now about this request from the Ukrainians to receive this aircraft, and, were they to donate them, whether we would be able to help support backfill in their own security need," Nuland said.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou and Luis Martinez
Editor's note: This post was updated to reflect the correct fighter jet models as MiG-29s, not MiG-19s.