Secretary of Protection Lloyd J. Austin III thanked Poland’s willingness to proceed to search for methods to help Ukraine, however he burdened that the U.S. doesn’t assist the switch of extra fighter plane to the Ukrainian Air Power at the moment, mentioned a Protection Division official.
Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby spoke at a press convention right now.
“One of the best ways to assist Ukrainian protection is by offering them the weapons and the methods that they want most to defeat Russian aggression; specifically, anti-armor and air protection,” he mentioned.
“We, together with different nations, proceed to ship them these weapons and we all know that they are getting used with nice impact. The slowed Russian advance within the north. And the contested airspace over Ukraine is proof alone of that,” he mentioned.
Though Russian air capabilities are vital, their effectiveness has been restricted as a consequence of Ukrainian strategic operational and tactical ground-based air protection methods, surface-to-air missiles and man-portable, air-defense methods, Kirby mentioned.
The Ukrainian Air Power presently has a number of squadrons of totally mission succesful plane, he mentioned.
“We assess that including plane to the Ukrainian stock shouldn’t be prone to considerably change the effectiveness of Ukrainian Air Power relative to Russian capabilities,” he mentioned.
The intelligence neighborhood has assessed that the switch of MiG 29 jets to Ukraine could also be mistaken as escalatory and will end in vital Russian response which may enhance the prospects of a navy escalation with NATO, Kirby mentioned.
“We’re grateful for the excellent assist and cooperation of our Polish allies who proceed to host hundreds of our troops,” he mentioned, together with thousands and thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
“Polish generosity is clearly on show for the entire world to see,” he added.
“We all know the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in addition to common Ukrainian residents are defending their nation with nice talent and bravado. We’ll proceed to search for methods to assist them do this,” he mentioned.
