Thread by @jseldin

NEW: US readout of call between @SecDef Lloyd Austin and #Poland's Minister of National Defense Mariusz Błaszczak re #Ukraine

No specific mention of #MiGs but they discussed "how the United States and Poland could effectively provide assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces"

https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1501659369565474827

Earlier @PentagonPresSec said @SecDef told #Poland's Błaszczak, "We do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force at this time & therefore have no desire to see them in our custody either"

re #MiG29s

"We believe the best way to support #Ukrainian defense is by providing them the weapons & the systems that they need most to defeat #Russia|n aggression, in particular anti armor & air defense" per @PentagonPresSec, adding such systems being used by #Ukraine to "great effect"

"The Ukrainian Air Force currently has several squadrons of fully mission capable aircraft" per @PentagonPresSec "We assess that adding aircraft...is not likely to significantly change the effectiveness of Ukrainian air force relative to #Russia|n capabilities"

re #MiG29s

"Finally, the [US] intelligence community has assessed the transfer of #MiG29s to #Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory & could result in significant #Russia|n reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation w/@NATO" per @PentagonPresSec

"Sovereign nations can decide for themselves what they want to do" per @PentagonPresSec on other countries sending the #MiG29s

"The proposal of transferring these jets to our custody for them transferring to #Ukraine, that is something that we are not going to explore right now"