The UK’s curious plan to split the cost of giving F-16s to Kyiv conveniently ignores who controls them.

(Originally published May 17 in “What in the World“) British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte agreed to form an international consortium that will provide F-16s to Ukraine, apparently in defiance of Washington’s refusal to do so.

The consortium would seem to be like the one that this month supplied Ukraine with long-range Storm Shadow missiles, which can hit targets more than 100km away. Ukraine said it is already using its new Storm Shadows against Russian forces. The Storm Shadows overcame Washington’s refusal to give Ukraine long-range Atacms, which along with F-16s it fears Ukraine would use to launch attacks across the border inside Russia and risk provoking Russia and perhaps even China into open conflict with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

How the U.K. and the Netherlands intend to obtain Lockheed Martin-made F-16s without Washington’s approval is unclear. While weapons are made and sold by companies, the countries where they’re made retain the right to say where and to whom they can be sold or even resold. That’s why NATO’s provision of used Rheinmetall Leopard tanks to Ukraine required Germany’s say-so. Washington gave the Netherlands the okay to supply one of its Raytheon Patriot batteries to Ukraine, but a spokesman for the National Security Council said the White House’s position on F-16s for Ukraine remained the same: nope.

Ukraine is meanwhile making good use of its Patriot batteries, saying it was able to shoot down six of Russia’s most advanced hypersonic missiles, the Kinzhal. Ukraine didn’t say what it had used to shoot down the Kinzhals but said last week that one of its U.S.-supplied Patriot batteries had downed a Kinzhal, which Moscow has claimed is unstoppable. Russia said the opposite: that a Kinzhal had damaged a Patriot battery, which was confirmed by U.S. officials, who added that the Patriot was damaged but still operating. Russia also said Ukraine couldn’t have shot down six Kinzhals because it hadn’t even fired that many. So there.

Poland received its first Himars rocket launcher, one of 18 that are part of its $414 million order of launcher and ammo. Warsaw said it would station its first launcher in the country’s northeast, near the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, and hopes to eventually buy 500 of the launchers.