Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the United States should support Poland’s attempt to supply fighter jets to Ukraine.
Anchor Dana Bash said, “I know you have been urging the U.S. to help Ukraine get fighter jets from Poland, and that were going to do it through a U.S. airbase. You just heard Jake Sullivan mention that the intelligence community assessment is that that move would risk an escalation. Are you worried that giving those planes to Ukraine could actually trigger World War III?
Portman said, “I don’t know why that would be true. The Russians have complained about everything. Vladimir Putin has said that the sanctions are an act of war. They certainly complained when we provided Stingers directly from the U.S. government, which can knock down an airplane, and have been successful in doing that at lower altitudes. We have given them helicopters. As recently as January, we provided them U.S. military helicopters. Those are directly from the United States. In this case, this would be Poland providing these airplanes, which are soviet-style planes, old plains, MiG-29s. There are also two other countries, Slovakia and Bulgaria, that have these airplanes. What we’ve heard from the Ukrainians is they want them badly. They want the ability to have better control over the skies to give them a fighting chance. I don’t understand why we’re not doing it. We initially gave the green light, as you know, last weekend, the secretary of state said it was going to give the green light. For some reason, now we’re blocking it. I don’t understand why this is any worse from a Russian point of view than other things we’ve already done or that we’re talking about.”
He added, “To me, Vladimir Putin and the Russians seem to be saying everything is escalatory, yet they’re escalating every single day by coming into Ukraine with these weapons.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.