Poland and Slovakia have said they are ready to send their Soviet MiG-29 supersonic fighter jets to Ukraine and are calling on their allies to also provide fighters.
So far, there are no other countries that are ready to take this step.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said Wednesday on CNN that Poland is ready to give Ukraine its MiGs in a coalition with other countries. He said Poland would give “the rest of the MiG-29s that we have in Poland that are in service and that are now serving in our air force.” “We are ready to provide these planes, and I am sure that Ukraine will be ready to use them immediately, because Ukraine has pilots capable of flying these machines right now,” Duda said.
“I think it’s time to make a decision. People in Ukraine are dying. We can really help them,” Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad wrote on Facebook yesterday.
Nad said that on Wednesday he discussed giving the MiGs with his Polish counterpart at a meeting in Sweden and both were unanimous on the matter.
Ukraine is pushing for fighter jets to bolster its defenses in the war launched by Russia, now in its second year. Kiev has received promises of tanks, some of which are already arriving, but no other fighter jet commitments for now.
Bulgaria has about 18 MiG-29s, but it is not clear how many of them are flying. In November of last year, Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov showed the schedule to the deputies from the defense committee, which showed that at the beginning of 2023, only 6 of the fighters will remain flying. Operation of the MiG-29 became impossible after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, as Bulgaria maintained its fighters through the Russian company RSK-MiG. Stoyanov tried to find engines for the MiG-29 from Poland, but the Poles gave all their available parts as support to Ukraine’s aviation. At the same time, Stoyanov does not allow the possibility of Bulgarian MiG-29s being sent to Ukraine.
Source: Svobodna Evropa