The Pentagon on Tuesday evening was forced to shoot down an unexpected Polish proposal to transfer the latter’s jets into American custody before sending them on to Ukraine.

Poland had seemingly blindsided the United States and other allies by announcing earlier in the day that they would send its entire fleet of Russian-made MiG-29s to a major U.S. base in Germany in response to a chorus of appeals from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to upgrade Ukraine’s defense against a vicious Russian invasion.