Several Members Of Congress Push For Biden To Send Jets To Ukraine

With Russia increasing the range and intensity of its attacks on Ukraine over the weekend, Democrats and Republicans in Congress are increasingly united in calling on the Biden administration to facilitate the transfer of fighter jets to the besieged ally.

The administration last week rejected a Poland-brokered deal to provide Ukraine with 28 Soviet era MiG-29 fighter jets, saying that such a move would likely be viewed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as escalatory and thus risk open conflict between NATO and Russia. Under the Polish proposal, the MiGs would be transferred to custody of the U.S. at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, leaving it then the U.S. get the jets into Ukraine.

Pentagon officials say the Intelligence Community has concluded this might be mistaken by Russia as an escalatory by the United States and NATO.

"And could result in significant Russia reaction," said Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, "that might increase prospects of military action with NATO."

A bipartisan delegation of U.S. Senators was in Poland this weekend, close to the Ukraine border, and expressed support for the Polish proposal.

"Vladimir Putin and the Russians seem to be saying everything is escalatory,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) told CNN Sunday, “and yet they're escalating every single day."

Also on March 13, the bipartisan, 58-member Problem Solvers Caucus released a statement pushing the administration to provide additional military assistance to Ukraine, in the form of Stinger missiles, air-defense systems and fighter jets.

“Russia’s advantage in [the air] could soon develop into air dominance if the Ukrainians do not receive necessary military aid,” the group said in a statement.

Late last week, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) joined dozens of other GOP Senators at a news conference urging the Biden administration to reconsider its stance.

“Americans have been walking alongside Ukrainians for years now to be able to prepare them for this moment,” said Lankford. “The last thing that we should do as a country is now say, ‘Just kidding, that’s too far, we’re not going to be allowing you to defend yourself any longer’…Them receiving aircraft from Poland or from any other country in the area is no different than them receiving [Stinger missiles] from us as well.”

Meanwhile, Putin's attack nearly crossed into Poland Sunday, when his bombers targeted a military training center in far western Ukraine, about 15 miles from the Polish border. At least 35 were killed and more than a hundred injured in the airstrikes. It is the same training facility where the Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade spent a year in 2017 as part of a multi-national training force working to raise the standards of the Ukrainian army.

On CBS This Morning, former National Security Advisor under President Trump Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster said Putin is looking increasingly desperate: “What he's trying to do is threaten an escalation of the war so that we will throttle back on our support for Ukraine.”

Certainly, there's no sign of that happening. If anything, support is only increasing -- this weekend the Biden administration pledged $200 million more in small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine. But so far, no jets.