Poland delays transfer of MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine: Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that while initial arrangements with Poland and NATO were in place to supply Ukraine with MiG-29 fighter jets, shifting priorities and “new reasons” continue to delay the process, affecting Ukraine’s defense efforts against Russian missile strikes. 

The type is one of the main combat aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force, which means that unlike the Western fighter jets pledged to Ukraine [F-16, Mirage 2000 – ed. note], Ukrainian personnel will not need to be retrained to use them.  

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“We really wanted to get MiGs from Poland,” Zelenskyy emphasized. “But they couldn’t transfer them because they didn’t have enough of their own.”  

“So we agreed with NATO that they would assign them to a policing mission, similar to what our Baltic friends have,” he said, referencing NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission.   

According to this agreement, NATO allies rotate to protect the airspace of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, which do not possess any fighter aircraft. 

However, Zelenskyy noted that despite this workaround, “another reason was found” not to transfer the MiGs, leaving Ukraine to face its escalating airspace threats without the anticipated support. 

The president expressed frustration that, even though Poland chose not to use its MiGs for its own missile defense, it has also not fulfilled Ukraine’s proposal to station the aircraft within Western Ukraine.

Zelenskyy argued that such an arrangement would enable Ukrainian forces to intercept missiles before they reach critical areas, such as the Bilche-Volytsko-Uherske underground gas storage facility in the city of Stryi, the largest in Ukraine and the second largest in Europe. 

Poland still needs MiG-29 fighters for its own air defense 

In an interview with Ukrinform, Poland’s Chargé d’affaires to Ukraine, Pyotr Lukasiewicz, explained that while Poland has transferred some parts and MiG-29s over the past two years, it must retain 10 to 15 remaining Soviet fighters for national defense until new F-16 and F-35 aircraft arrive as part of an ongoing air force transformation.  

Lukasiewicz stressed Poland’s need for continued air defense, suggesting that NATO allies could alternatively deploy additional squadrons to Poland to compensate for any MiGs transferred to Ukraine. 

At the outbreak of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Poland operated around 20 MiG-29 jets that date back to the 1980s and were thoroughly modernized in the 2010s.  

In March 2022, shortly after the beginning of the war, a plan to transfer the whole Polish fleet of MiG-29 fighters officially fell through after Poland and the United States failed to reach an agreement. 

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However, in January 2023, rumors emerged that Poland had already delivered operational MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in secret but these were disassembled and labeled as spare parts. By the summer of 2023, Poland had officially transferred around 10 MiG-29s to Ukraine. The post Poland delays transfer of MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine: Zelenskyy appeared first on AeroTime.

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