Poland could transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in “four to six weeks,” the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
The announcement is yet another twist in the saga of Polish MiGs being delivered to Ukraine. The proposal has been ongoing since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Poland trying to organize the transfer and coordinate it with other NATO countries.
Poland had previously urged “a coalition” of countries to send jets to Ukraine, a call which has not been widely answered.
The only other nation to announce that it was preparing to transfer its MiG-29s to Ukraine was Slovakia which, in December 2022, said that the aircraft would be sent “soon”.
Poland currently has more than 20 MiG-29 jets that date back to the 1980s and have been thoroughly modernized. The type is one of the main combat aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force, which means that Ukrainian personnel will not need to be retrained to use them.
Bulgaria also announced its intention to send its stocks of Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft to Ukraine, with some reports claiming that the jets have already been transferred.
Ukraine also said that some aircraft parts have been received from the Western allies, likely helping Ukraine to keep the existing fleet of combat jets airborne.
At least several countries, including the Netherlands, Denmark and the United States have also expressed an intention to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, although when and how such a transfer could occur is currently unclear.
So far Ukrainian pilots are known to train in the US, the United Kingdom and France, with the former two countries also voicing their intent to give a number of fighter jets to Ukraine.
