President Andrzej Duda announced this Thursday that Poland will send four Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine “in the coming days”. Others will follow later. But this decision will have surprised NATO allies, as the Poles had said just last week that the eventual sending of fighter jets would only take place within the framework of an international coalition. Slovakia is another country that has advocated for the deployment of its MiGs and the question is whether this Polish decision will lead others to follow suit.
“So far everyone agrees that now is not the time to send fighter jets,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius when asked about the Polish decision. The US, on the other hand, indicated that Poland was the first NATO country to send the fighters – just as it was the first to say it would send its German-made Leopard 2 tanks -“changes nothing” about US decision not to send own F-16s to Kiev.
There was no response from the Russian side this Thursday, but Moscow has always claimed that sending more weapons to Ukraine will only prolong the conflict. The countries of the Atlantic Alliance have been hesitant about the idea of supplying fighter jets to Kiev for fear that it could be seen as an escalation by Russia – but they also thought they would go with the Leopard 2 tanks and eventually relented.
Polish MiG-29s, about a dozen, will be operational, inherited from the former German Democratic Republic. “These MiGs are still in service with the Polish Air Force. They are in their last years of service, but they are still in full service”, Duda said at a press conference in Warsaw together with his Czech counterpart, former NATO General Petr Pavel. And he explained that other planes are undergoing maintenance and may later travel to Kiev. Poland will replace its old MiGs with the South Korean FA-50, which it bought, and then with the North American F-35.
For a year now, the Poles have been saying they are willing to send their MiGs to Ukraine, provided the US replaces them with their more modern devices. They claimed at the time that they would send them through the US base in Rammstein, Germany, while Washington said no.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked allies to provide him with modern fighter jets, namely the F-16. But untill now, only the Netherlands was open to this and Finland agreed to send its Hornets, also made in the United States. However, Poland and Slovakia have defended sending their old Soviet MiGs. to replace those Ukraine has lost since the invasion. Ukrainian pilots are willing to fly these aircraft, and the UK has also started training them so that they can eventually fly Western-made aircraft.
Despite Slovakia’s willingness to deploy its own MiGs, the country is in the middle of a political crisis, with Prime Minister Eduard Heger acting only as an interim – having lost a no-confidence vote in December. Moreover, he left his party and joined another. Opposition voices argue that no decision should be made on sending the jets before the elections, which are not scheduled until September. Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad, however, wants a decision earlier and says that parliament has a say.
The Polish president’s announcement came hours after Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski claimed so Warsaw dismantled a Russian espionage network operating in the country. Nine people suspected of working for the Russian secret service have been arrested. “The suspects carried out espionage activities against Poland and prepared acts of sabotage in favor of Russian intelligence services,” he said, saying all those arrested were “foreigners” from countries in eastern Poland.
The group’s target was the railways, as its mission was to spy on supply routes and equipment sent to Ukraine. The agents of the Polish Bureau of Internal Security (ABW) found cameras, electronic equipment and GPS transmitters that were to be placed on transports bound for Ukraine.
drone vs. Russian fighter
The US released a 40-second video this Thursday showing a Russian Su-27 fighter jet dropping fuel on a US Reaper drone, which flew over international waters in the Black Sea and eventually crashed. The Pentagon claims the drone was on a routine mission when it was intercepted in a “reckless” and “unprofessional” manner.
With the release of fuel, the device’s controllers went blank for 60 seconds. On return it was visible that part of the propeller had been destroyed. Russia denies causing the crash and claims the drone lost control. The waters it fell into are deep, so salvaging the wreck could be difficult for the Russians, with the US saying it has erased all relevant information and what’s left is of no value.
Source: DN
