Poland is the first NATO country to respond to repeated requests from Kiev for the delivery of fighter jets. “In the coming days we will deliver 4 MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine,” announced President Andrzej Duda. A “sovereign decision” that the United States “respects,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, but “does not change our assessments of the F-16s,” which are “not on the table now” and “our sovereign decision does not change”.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has released footage of the collision between the Russian fighter jet and the American drone over the Black Sea. The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 jet approaching the tail of the MQ-9 drone and beginning to dump fuel release it passes. Then the fighter strikes, damaging the drone’s propeller. The plane’s operators then glided it over the Black Sea and crashed into the water. Moscow has so far denied that there was a collision. The US was “transparent” and the images “clearly showed” what happened to the MQ-9 Reaper, Kirby said, “at best” it was “reckless” behavior by Russian pilots, “at worst” it was “reckless.” “. and “incompetent” behavior. However, he stressed, the US could not say with certainty that it was “premeditious.” “We don’t want a conflict with Russia,” the escalation “is not inevitable,” Kirby added to the communications channels with Moscow “remain open”, but “we want to continue supporting Ukraine.” For its part, the Kremlin, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov, announced that the Russian army will recover the drone if it deems it “necessary for our interests and security”. .
Kiev’s army, meanwhile, has shot down a Mugin-5 drone, a Chinese-made unmanned aerial vehicle that has been adapted for commercial use and converted into a weapon, in eastern Ukraine. According to CNN, these planes are known as “Alibaba drones” because they can be purchased for $15,000 on Chinese e-commerce sites like Alibaba and Taobao. Mugin Limited, the company that makes the drone, said it condemned the use of its products for military purposes and halted sales to Russia and Ukraine at the start of the war, but Russian officials said in January they also had one of launched Mugin-5 shot down by Ukrainian forces. Chinese companies, including a government-affiliated company, have sent Russia 1,000 assault rifles and other equipment that could be used for military purposes, including drone parts and bulletproof vests, Politico said.
Fighting continues on the ground and Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killings in the occupied territories, amount to war crimes, according to an investigation commissioned and supported by the United Nations. The report cites repeated attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure since the autumn and the “systematic and widespread” use of torture as potential crimes against humanity. The report’s authors also noted a “small number” of apparent violations by Ukrainian armed forces. A ceasefire “now” would be “another violation of the UN charter,” the US National Security Council spokesman said, while Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba that Beijing hopes “all sides will find calm, Maintain sanity and sobriety, resume peace talks as soon as possible, and urge a return to the path of political settlement.” China, Qin said, “will continue to play a constructive role in achieving a ceasefire, ending the war, to defuse the crisis and restore peace.” Instead, Kuleba, along with his Chinese counterpart, underscored the question of “the importance of the principle of territorial integrity,” on which Beijing has previously taken an ambiguous position, and revisited President Zelensky’s peace formula Away.