Vice President Kamala Harris landed in Warsaw late Wednesday on the first leg of her trip to Poland and Romania  — dropping right into the middle of a controversy over the US rejecting an offer from Poland to transfer Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine via an American air base in Germany.  

The Polish government announced Tuesday it had offered to deploy 28 MiG-29 jets to Ramstein Air Base for the US to take possession of and offer to the Kyiv government. However, the Pentagon said the offer “raises serious concerns” and rejected it as not “tenable.”​

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had told his Polish counterpart that while the offer was appreciated, “we do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force at this time, and therefore have no desire to see them in our custody, either,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Wednesday. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine began Feb. 24, has warned that Moscow would retaliate against nations that aided Ukraine militarily or participated in a no-fly zone over the country.

On Wednesday, Kirby said that Austin had agreed with US intelligence officials who warned that the “transfer of combat aircraft right now could be mistaken by Mr. Putin and the Russians as an escalatory step.”

In a call on Saturday with members of Congress, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky had pleaded with lawmakers to establish a no-fly zone and send fighter jets to assist Ukrainian forces trying to repel Russian troops. 

The White House appeared to be caught off guard by the Polish proposal even after Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said over the weekend that NATO had given Poland a “green light” to send the jets. 

On Wednesday, Kirby alleged that Blinken’s comments were made “when this was a nascent idea” and insisted that Poland still had the option of giving the jets directly to Ukraine.

“Sovereign nations can decide for themselves what they want to do,” the Pentagon press secretary said, “but this idea, that proposal of transferring these jets to our custody for then transferring to Ukraine, that is something that we are not going to explore right now.”

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The confusion over the overture marks a rare moment of discord among the US and its allies after they agreed to impose a series of crippling sanctions against Russian banks, Putin, and his inner circle of oligarchs that has caused the ruble to plummet to record lows. 

Harris’ already high-stakes visit to Poland and Romania will now also involve sorting out this disagreement.

“This fighter jet situation is a messy deal, and Harris will have to go there and smooth things out,” Daniel Fried, who served as U​S​ ambassador to Poland for President Bill Clinton and was a senior adviser in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, told the Associated Press​.

“There’s plenty of discussion on the way ahead that needs to be had with the Poles that is better to have in an in-person conversation​,” Fried added. ​

In return for giving up the MiGs, Poland had asked the US to resupply it with F-16s. On Wednesday, Austin ordered two Patriot missile batteries to be moved from Germany to Poland in a preemptive move to “counter any potential threat to US and Allied forces and NATO territory,” a EUCOM spokeswoman said.

This week’s sojourn is the latest high-level foreign trip by Harris, who was dispatched to the Munich Security Conference in Germany days before the Russian invasion commenced. Republican members of Congress had ridiculed that visit, pointing to Harris failing to halt the ongoing US-Mexico border crisis as Biden’s migration czar.

Last year, Harris was sent to France to smooth things over with French President Emmanuel Macron following the announcement of a US-UK submarine deal with Australia that superseded an earlier agreement between the Paris and Canberra governments.

Harris was also mocked earlier this year for providing a too-basic breakdown of the European crisis in a radio interview, beginning her explanation of the tense geopolitical situation by saying, “Ukraine is a country in Europe.”

In Poland, which has taken in more than 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees, the vice president will discuss implementing economic sanctions on Russia, unity among the Western allies, and humanitarian and security assistance to Ukraine, senior administration officials said. 

Along with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday, Harris is scheduled to meet with Ukrainians who have fled to Poland. 

She’ll also discuss Ukraine with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is also visiting Warsaw this week.

On Friday, Harris is due to meet with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis​ in Bucharest before returning to Washington.​​