INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States was "working actively" on a deal with Poland to supply Ukraine with
jets to fight invading Russians.The deal, according to reports, could involve Poland handing over its existing MIG-29s, a
Soviet/Russian-made jet fighter Ukrainian pilots are familiar with, and the U.S
would then provide its F-16 fighters to Poland as replacements.U.S
officials, including Blinken, had downplayed the possibility of any NATO country supplying besieged Ukraine since the beginning of this
looking at it very, very actively," he told reporters."We are looking actively now at the question of airplanes that Poland may provide to
Ukraine and looking at how we might be able to backfill should Poland decide to supply those planes."The comments came one day after Blinken
met Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba on the Poland-Ukraine border and Kuleba pressed him for the aircraft.After 10 days of a brutal
war, Kuleba said, "The highest demand that we have is in fighter jets, attack aircraft, and air-defense systems.""If we lose the skies,
there will be much more blood on the ground," he said after the meeting, with Blinken standing beside him.While a significant part of
Ukraine's air force remains intact since the war began on Feb
24, both Ukraine and Russia have sustained significant losses and neither controls the airspace over the country.But Russia has a massive
conflict.But supporters of furnishing Ukraine with more aircraft from a NATO country argue that the alliance, and the U.S
especially, have already been giving Kyiv's army tons of lethal weaponry and munitions every day since the war began.Another problem,
however, is that the United States does not have any F-16s coming off the production line to readily supply Poland, which also faces a
potential threat from Russia and needs aircraft to defend itself.Any deal would require White House approval and support in the U.S
Congress, and likely NATO support as well.Congress would likely go along, after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky urged lawmakers
Saturday in a conference call to provide more arms.But Poland also was not necessarily on board with the idea."Poland won't send its fighter
jets to Ukraine as well as allow to use its airports
We significantly help in many other areas," the Chancellery of the Prime Minister wrote in a tweet Sunday.
