Illustration photo – Two MiG-29 fighters (above and below) and two F-16s of the Polish army at an air show.
Warsaw – Poland is ready to provide Ukraine with MiG-29 fighters to defend against a Russian invasion, but only if this support includes a wider coalition of countries in the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO). This was said today by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who repeated the already known Polish position, Reuters reported.
Advertisement'; }
For the first time, Poland offered to provide MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the first weeks of the invasion. On March 8, 2022, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it was ready to transfer all of its Soviet-built MiG-29 fighters to the US base at Ramstein in Germany, from where they would be handed over to Ukraine through NATO. At the time, the proposal was rejected by the White House, saying it would be a “highly risky step”. In the first weeks of the invasion, Western military aid to Ukraine was mainly limited to ammunition, small arms and other military equipment.
Now, almost a year later, when the Western states of Kiev have promised to supply modern battle tanks, the debate about provision of fighter jets to the Ukrainian military across NATO more alive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is demanding more and more advanced military assistance, who, even on the basis of Western intelligence, expects a new Russian offensive with greater use of the Russian air force.
However, Poland is ready to provide fighter jets only in cooperation with NATO and the security spokesman of White House of Representatives John Kirby and, for example, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius have made it clear in their statements in recent days that the delivery of fighter jets to Kiev is the subject of discussion, but is not planned in the foreseeable future.
