Poland is to send four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days, it has been announced, with more to follow later.
“Firstly, literally in the next few days we will be handing over, as far as I can remember, four planes to Ukraine in perfect working order,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday.
“The rest is being prepared, maintained.”
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This makes Poland the first NATO member country to respond to the Ukrainian government’s increasingly urgent demands for warplanes.
ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that his country needs jets to effectively fight against the Russian invasion.
Both UK and USA ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Western nations remain reluctant to supply Ukraine with fighter jets, despite the obvious benefit they would bring, due to lingering fears that this could precipitate a widening of the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders. .
Some fear that sending such technology will escalate the conflict and be perceived by Russia as NATO countries entering the war by proxy.
President Duda did not say whether other countries would do the same, although Slovakia said it would send its decommissioned MiGs to Ukraine.
Poland has been one of the most active allies in pushing for more arms to be supplied to Ukraine.
He will initially hand over four former Soviet-era MiG-29s. The rest needs to be verified and will be provided later.
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President Duda previously told Sky News that Ukraine would need “modern aircraft, fighter aircraft of the future” to thwart Russian aggression.
But he said that might not happen for a while because Ukrainian pilots need training.
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President Duda said that Poland has about 10-20 MiG-29 aircraft.
Poland has already sent 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
Asked last week how many MiG-29 planes Warsaw could supply, the head of the president’s office, Pawel Szrot, said it would “certainly not” be up to 14.
