In the coming days, Poland will hand over four MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, the rest will be prepared and handed over, President Andrzej Duda said.
MiG-29 aircraft for Ukraine
In the next few days, we will deliver four aircraft in full working condition, the rest are being maintained, prepared and likely to be handed over sequentially
Duda said this in Warsaw on Thursday after a meeting with Czech President Petr Pavel.
Such a decision was first taken jointly by us at the level of the highest national authorities, then the government adopted a special resolution on this issue
he remembered.
Duda added that “we currently have a dozen more of these MiGs in stock”, the aircraft are operational and still used for Polish airspace surveillance, but “these are the last years of their operation”.
He noted that the MiGi-29 “are combat aircraft that today can be flown by Ukrainian pilots without any additional training”.
We will transfer (them) successively to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
he announced.
He also recalled that fighters produced in the USSR will be replaced by Korean FA-50 and American F-35 aircraft.
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A coalition of states?
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the transfer of Polish MiGs to Ukraine could take place within the next four to six weeks.
President Duda stated in an interview with CNN last Wednesday that he is willing to hand over these aircraft to Ukraine. “We are ready to deliver these planes and I am sure Ukraine will use them immediately,” the president said. The head of the president’s office Paweł Szrot added a day later that “it will not be a large number”, and in this case Poland is ready to act as part of a wider international coalition. The head of the Ministry of National Defense, Deputy Prime Minister Mariusz Błaszczak, assured that with regard to the MiG-29 aircraft “there is complete cohesion between the president and the government”.
In early March, the Minister of Defense of Slovakia, Jaroslav Nad’, talked about the possibility of giving Ukraine these Soviet-made fighters.
Before Poland lost several machines due to catastrophe, accidents and breakdowns on the ground in 2016-2021, it had 32 MiG-29 fighters. Twelve were bought from the USSR in 1989, Poland received 10 from the Czech Republic in 1995 in exchange for 11 W-3 Sokół helicopters, at the beginning of the century for a symbolic euro, Poland took over 10 aircraft from Germany, of which 10 have entered service.
wkt/PAP
Source: wPolityce