The balloons are Washington’s. They are for tracking vehicles and movements of citizens, probably in anticipation of banning vehicles and ‘environmental lockdowns’.
It’s all laid out in this Guardian piece from ARSH 2019. A few screen caps below for the record.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest
They’re dragging UFO’s into the conversation because Boobus Effeminatus Americanus is, for the fist time, collectively stupid enough en masse to actually believe not only in space aliens, but space aliens IN BALLOONS.