other nato alies on this issue. we have not in any way opposed the polish government, providing these jets to ukraine, and we re working, as you noted, to see how we can backfill for them. could u.s. jets be provided to poland and those nations? we re still in discussions with the poles on that issue. but it, too, is an issue of training, right? the ukrainian pilots are trained on, say, the mig-29s, perhaps not on the more the latest, you know, u.s. jets available. time is of the essence. so they are going to need planes that the pilots are ready to fly. do you know anything about how many ukrainian pilots might be available to fly any jets that might be donated? i think they have the pilots. we re not talking about a huge number of planes.
everything would be ok and he insisted russian troops wouldn t dare enter this city. then he crumpled. and the people all this is meant for had to spend yet another night in danger. sarah rainsford, bbc news, zaporizhzhia. ukraine s president volodymyr zelensky asked for more help to defend his country against russian invasion in a zoom call with members of the us congress. as well as repeating his call for a no fly zone something nato countries say they won t do president zelenksy also asked the us to help ukraine access fighter jets that its pilots could fly. 0ne plan could see the us providing modern f16jets to poland and other eastern european countries with those countries, sending older planes, on to ukraine. here s duncan kennedy. we know that the polish air force has some old russian made jets, mig 29s and one or two
the putin party of the democratic party. biden is a disaster. he is weak. he s not doing the things that are needed for the ukrainians to win. this is what is bothering me. why is it that the ukrainians have to lose? why is it that the ukrainians have to have their cities destroyed? why is it that we are sitting and waiting for the russians to go in and take out kyiv and kill their president? why is that? i ve never seen anything like this in my life. they want mig-29s. we and our allies can give them mig-29s. they want some f-15s that their phone, oldest but mostly bakeries. we should get them some f-16s to five. we don t have to be in charge of any no-fly zone. do not have to send american troops into ukraine. and why do people think that this coward, putin, hiding in some bunker, going to use nuclear weapons? i don t get that. if he was going to use nuclear
to support the war in ukraine. i know a lot of people feel the pinch in their wallets but nevertheless some are saying that here at stateside. josh, thank you very much from latvia. general barry mccaffrey, nbc military analyst and retired four-star general. general, welcome to you. this situation that antony blinken discussed, the possibility of poland supplying for ukraine their soviet cold war era, these mig jets and things like that, and then the united states backfilling their supply, what do you think about that? first of all, are these planes, are they ready to fly, are they capable to fly, will they be strong enough to defend ukraine in the skies? look, i think since president zelenskyy called for it, then it s probably a useful approach to pursue. but look, mig 29s, su 25s, yes, the ukrainians can fly them. they require a huge runway,
put u.s. nato jets in the air enforcing a no fly zone, they will be going nose to nose with russian fighter aircraft down that path, the potential for a miscalculation in a war between nato and russia and a war between russia and the united states rises significantly. i implemented a no-fly zone. i know how to do this. i did it in libya in 2011. can we do it? sure. should we? not yet. final point, chuck, what we ought to do is give the ukrainians the ability to create a no-fly zone, more stringers, more missiles that can go higher than stingers, and above all get the mig-29s in their hands. do our nato allies, against the russian jets, have enough of them to give the ukrainians a chance at air superiority? yes. take a look at nato combat aircraft.