Poland sending MiGs to Ukraine

Poland will send four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days, making the Eastern European country the first member of the NATO bloc to supply warplanes to Kyiv after months of pleading.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters, made the announcement Thursday. “We can say confidently that we are sending MiGs to Ukraine,” Duda said in Warsaw. “We have a dozen or so MiGs that we got in the ’90s handed down from the German Democratic Republic [East Germany] and they are functional and play a part in the defense of our airspace.

“They are at the end of their operational life but are still functional.”

Duda added that the first four planes “in full working order” will be handed to Ukraine in the next few days. Additional aircraft will be delivered after being “serviced and prepared for handover.”

On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had said his government could send its MiGs “within the next four to six weeks.” Polish leaders previously stressed that sending the fighter jets to Ukraine would be done only within a larger international coalition.

Slovakia has also expressed willingness to supply its MiG-29s to Kyiv but has stopped short of announcing a decision.

The two nations have been lobbying other NATO members to follow suit.

Denmark on deck

Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday that the debate about sending fighter jets was ongoing. “This is something we’re discussing in the group of allied countries. It’s a big wish from Ukraine,” she said.

Ukraine’s pilots are familiar with the Soviet-era MiG-29s and could put them to use without spending months learning to fly them, which would be the case with other foreign aircraft.

The Polish air force reportedly has 28 of the jets, which it has been using since 1989. Asked last week how many of the aircraft Warsaw might supply to Kyiv, the head of the president’s office, Pawel Szrot, said it would “certainly” be fewer than 14.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on leading NATO countries, including the US and UK, to send modern fighter jets to defend against missile and drone attacks.

President Biden in January flatly rejected the notion of handing over F-16 planes to Ukraine.