The Poles surrender four of these planes. Above all, the Ukraine hopes for the more modern F 16.
(Photo: imago/StockTrek Images)
Vienna Poland is the first NATO country to hand over fighter jets to Ukraine. Kiev will receive four MiG-29 jets, President Andrzej Duda announced in Warsaw on Thursday during the state visit of his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel. “We are literally sending the MiGs to Ukraine right now,” Duda explained. In the near future he announced the delivery of further copies.
The head of state made it clear that Poland is handing over its last Soviet-made aircraft. They were taken from the Luftwaffe’s active inventory and were fully functional.
The country wants to fill the resulting gap with F-35 and FA-50 jets ordered from the USA and South Korea, the first of which should arrive in the autumn. “We will then have additional air forces in the form of state-of-the-art combat aircraft,” said Duda.
The fact that Poland wants to deliver fighter jets to the neighboring country attacked by Russia is nothing new. Warsaw campaigned for this a year ago, but failed to win over the Americans, who considered such a move too risky. In recent months, however, resistance in Washington and NATO has decreased.
When Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced a transfer within four to six weeks for the first time on Tuesday, the White House explicitly supported this. So far, however, the American President has rejected his own deliveries of modern fighter jets. Ukraine does not need this “for the moment”, declared Joe Biden at the end of February. But he doesn’t know what the country may need in the future, Biden added ambiguously.
NATO puts more emphasis on ammunition and anti-aircraft systems
While Kiev wants F-16 fighter jets, Washington and NATO see ammunition, air defense systems and heavy weapons as the top military priority in the country at war for a possible counter-offensive in the spring.
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In some capitals there is also concern that a delivery not only involves an unacceptably high risk of escalation towards Russia, but also leads to practically insurmountable hurdles in maintenance. Compared with this, the MiG-29s have the advantage that the Ukrainians are already flying this model. The F-16, for example, could not easily use the existing runways.
However, the major disadvantage of the MiG-29 is that it is based on technology from the 1980s. The navigation and communication systems of the Polish machines have been renewed since the country joined NATO. However, they are not comparable to fourth-generation fighter jets and are therefore inferior to Russian jets.
The advance of the Poles had an effect on the delivery of battle tanks. Germany participated.
(Photo: dpa)
Given that the destruction of the Ukrainian Air Force was a priority for Moscow in the early days, its continued combat capability comes as a surprise. However, it is also clear that the losses are high: The highest representative of the Air Force in Europe estimates that the Russians have shot down around 60 enemy machines since February 24, 2022. That would be more than half of the estimated pre-war Ukrainian stock.
The Poles have therefore come to the conclusion that a delivery is a high priority in order not to give Russia a decisive advantage in the airspace. However, the government has also made it clear that it is planning the transfer as part of an international coalition.
The alliance with Slovakia is crumbling
Warsaw obviously hopes to put pressure on its allies by pushing forward on the fighter jet issue. The tactic worked well against Germany in supplying “Patriot” systems and Leopard 2 main battle tanks. However, the situation surrounding the fighter jets is more complex. This can be seen in the example of Slovakia.
The government in Bratislava had already announced several times that it would hand over ten decommissioned MiGs to Ukraine, most recently in early March. However, it was always unclear how many of them are actually in airworthy condition.
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However, Bratislava repeatedly delayed the specific decision, arguing, among other things, that they were waiting for a joint decision by NATO. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Jaroslaw Nad suddenly said that no decision had been made, but that the issue had only been discussed informally.
According to media reports, Bratislava expects financial compensation of 900 million dollars from the USA and the EU. In addition, new elections will be held in September, and the opposition is leading in all polls. And she has made the refusal of arms aid for Kiev the core of her campaign.
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