Warsaw will transfer four Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days, the Polish president announced on Thursday.
“At first we will transfer to Ukraine, in the next few days […] four fully operational aircraft,” President Andrzej Duda said during a press conference with his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel.
“Other devices are currently undergoing maintenance and will probably be successively transferred” too, added the Polish president.
“We can therefore say that we are on the point of sending these MiGs to Ukraine”, he said, specifying that Poland has about fifteen MiGs, inherited in the 1990s from the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic, GDR.
“These MiGs are still in service with the Polish Air Force. These are the last years of operation of these devices which still remain, for the most part, operational, “said President Duda.
On Thursday morning, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said Poland wanted to transfer MiG-29s to Ukraine “as part of a broader coalition of states”.
Asked about the other countries in this coalition, he replied that it was Slovakia but “of course we are open to other participants. We absolutely want our activities to be carried out within the framework of a coalition”.
The MiGs transferred to Ukraine will be replaced by South Korean FA-50 aircraft and American F-35s.
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