Secretary of State Antony Blinked told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the United States had given NATO countries a “greenlight” to send fighter jets to Ukraine if necessary to assist in their war against Russia.
Blinken specifically said Ukraine’s neighbor Poland has permission to send the planes and that the U.S. has already been in discussion with the Polish government about the matter, CBS reported:
“That gets a green-light,” Blinken said in an interview with “Face the Nation” when asked whether the Polish government, a member of NATO, could send fighter planes to Ukraine. “In fact, we’re talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if in fact they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians. What can we do? How can we help to make sure that they get something to backfill the planes that they are handing over to the Ukrainians?”
Additionally, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova told “Face the Nation” that she hopes the polish planes will come “as soon as possible.”
“We are working with our American, especially, friends and allies, on the steady supply of all the ammunition and anti-air, anti-tank and planes to be able to effectively defend our country,” Markarova said.
Blinken’s comments can be seen here:
.@SecBlinken: The U.S. has given the “green light” to NATO countries if they choose to provide fighter jets to Ukraine, one day after President Zelensky made a plea to members of Congress to provide them during a Saturday Zoom call. https://t.co/liDkdNCAFI pic.twitter.com/3vHqk6YzQe
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 6, 2022
The announcement had mixed reactions on Twitter, but former New Jersey governor and presidential candidate Chris Christie (R) said that the decision to send planes “should have happened a long time ago” on ABC News “This Week.”
He also disagreed with fellow panelist Donna Brazile, who claimed that President Joe Biden deserved credit for uniting the world against Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Daily Wire reported.
“I would disagree with Donna on this one,” Christie said. “A president did unite the world. It was Zelensky, not Biden. He was very clear about what leadership was supposed to look like. We should have been arming the Ukrainians for the last year. We weren’t. We should have been doing much more on domestic production of oil. Instead we’re going backwards and gave Putin the card to hold us hostage and with Nord Stream 2 we gave him the card to hold Europe hostage.”
During the conversation, Christie also blasted the president for relying on foreign oil.
“You have to ban Russian oil and increase domestic production. That’s where Joe Biden is going to have a problem. He’s held captive by the environmental left,” Christie explained.
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