Ukraine needs the Russian-made fighter jets that are still being held in Poland and other Eastern European countries, and the United States should do what it can to facilitate that transfer, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general, said Wednesday on Newsmax.
However the Biden administration is "always kind of reactive and not proactive," and it is "ludicrous" it will not agree to help by replacing the transferred equipment with American-made planes and weapons, Bacon told "John Bachman Now."
"The Ukrainians need these MiG-29s that they know how to fly on," Bacon said. "They know how to fly those and those planes are in old Warsaw pact countries in eastern Europe. We should help facilitate that transfer. They also need some refills of old Russian air or surface-to-air missiles to shoot down airplanes. They need some of those systems as well."
It should not be that hard to facilitate the transfers, he continued, but the Biden administration is "afraid of provoking Russia."
"They've already attacked Ukraine," Bacon said. "They're doing war crimes there and indiscriminately bombing cities."
Part of the concern is Russian President Vladimir Putin could escalate the conflict by threatening a cyberattack or even a nuclear attack, and Bacon conceded Russia's "doctrine" does call for the use of a nuclear weapon, but he doesn't think Putin will go that far.
"Our main goal should be to keep forces our forces out of Ukraine and let the Ukrainians fight this, but we should, by all means, give them the weapons they need to defend themselves," Bacon said. "I don't think Russia will escalate with a nuclear weapon, and they may escalate with cyber, but we have very good cyber capabilities too.
"We can do retribution if they go after us on cyber. I do not think they're going to initiate a nuclear attack on us for providing weapons to Ukraine, but we don't want to get into World War III. We should keep our forces out of Ukraine."
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