Amazingly considering the odds against them, Ukraine’s airmen have more flyable fighters today than they did in early April, according to U.S. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby.

Kyiv’s air force has “more operable fighter aircraft than they had two weeks ago,” Kirby told reporters Tuesday.

Donations of airplane parts made it possible. “I would just say, without getting into what other nations are providing, that they have received additional platforms and parts to be able to increase their fleet size,” Kirby said.

The Ukrainian air force later clarified Kirby’s claim, tweeting Wednesday morning that it “officially” had received only spare parts, not whole flyable airframes. The Pentagon Wednesday afternoon confirmed that, yes, the Ukrainians strictly have gotten spares.

In any event, the extra parts helped the Ukrainian air force to put an extra 20 fighters into the air, a U.S. defense official told reporters.

It’s not hard to guess where fighter components might have come from. The governments of Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia weeks ago all signaled some degree of willingness to transfer to Ukraine old MiG-29s or spares for the same.

Despite some diplomatic doublespeak, likely meant to insulate the countries from Russian retaliation, it seems some or all of the three possible donors have handed over some of their stockpiles of MiG parts....