U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris leaves for Poland on Wednesday to broach the matter of “military assistance” for Ukraine, White House officials said, hours after Washington dismissed Warsaw’s unilateral plan to transfer Soviet-era MIG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. military base in Germany.
The trip was planned last week and was seen as a peace making effort by the White House, as Breitbart News reported.
Since then diplomatic events have moved rapidly culminating in Poland taking the Pentagon by surprise Tuesday by offering to send its Mig-29 jets “immediately and free of charge” to Ukraine via a U.S. air base.
Washington rejected the proposal.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the prospect of warplanes departing from a U.S.-NATO base “into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance.”
Harris will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday, according to U.S. officials who requested anonymity.
She’ll also meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while in Warsaw. He has also been on the diplomatic trail in Europe this past week.
Harris will travel on Friday to Bucharest, where she’s to meet Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
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