US prohibits transfer of MiG-29 to Ukraine in exchange for China's promise to prevent Putin from using nuclear weapons - media

This is reported by The Spectator with reference to its own sources.

The publication emphasized that at first the US reacted positively to Poland's idea to hand over its Soviet MiG-29 fighter jets to the Ukrainian army. But the very next day, on March 8, the Americans opposed such a transfer.

The reason for this was contacts with the generals of the Chinese army. They believed that this would lead to an escalation of the conflict.

The publication emphasized that the transfer of fighter jets of any type by a NATO country to Kyiv became an important symbolic, if not necessarily significant from an operational point of view, step towards NATO's direct participation in the conflict.

Therefore, China called on the US to prevent the transfer of fighter jets. Instead, the Chinese generals, who had good private contacts with Russian generals, promised to do everything possible to “defuse Putin's nuclear threat.” This means that they had to convince the Russian generals if ordered to use nuclear weapons, or convince the political leadership not to do so, in accordance with Russia's nuclear doctrine, or sabotage the execution of this order at their level.

China continues non-public contacts with the West, especially the US and NATO, regarding the war in Ukraine. Currently, there is a mutual agreement between them not to escalate the conflict: the West does not give Ukraine strategic weapons, and China uses all the levers of influence on Russia to prevent the use of nuclear weapons.