Senior Democratic and Republican senators slammed U.S. President Joe Biden’s lukewarm support for sending Polish MiG fighter jets to Ukraine, threatening to use Congressional authority to force Biden to support the move, the Washington Examiner reported.
Speaking to Pentagon and State Department officials, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said: “There is bipartisan support to provide these planes. It is disappointing to see the reluctance on the part of the administration. And it's coming across as indecision and bickering among members of the administration, which is not helpful to the cause and not helpful to the administration.”
The initial plan was put on ice by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after Poland announced without consulting the White House first that it was interested in transferring its entire fleet of MiGs to an American Air Force base in Germany.
The senators criticized the Pentagon’s next action, which was to state that sending the jets would not be as helpful as sending other weapons to the Ukrainians and would likely provoke the Russians.
“The two reasons, we’re now learning is, one, that your judgment is superseding that of the Ukrainian military, and, two, you think that it's somehow more provocative, even though you are saying that you should be sending them and want to send them something that you think is more effective in the field that, by definition, would be something that the Russians would be more concerned about,” Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) said on Thursday during a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Biden administration also expressed worry that it would be difficult to transfer the planes into Ukraine without going directly from NATO bases, which could then be seen by Russia as military targets.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez (NJ-D) said at the hearing that the committee has jurisdiction over arms sales, and that he would consider using the powers if the administration did not come forward with answers.
“I don't like using that jurisdiction in a way that doesn't facilitate our foreign policy and national interest and security, but if I can’t get answers to the fundamental questions, then I will,” he said. “There may be a perfectly valid and good reason. I think all of us should know so that we can pivot to something else. But if there is no perfectly valid and good reason, then we need to know that, too.”