Poland is preparing to supply military jets to Ukraine: Warsaw will transfer four Mig-29s to Kiev in the coming days, announced President Andrzej Duda. Other Soviet-made military aircraft of the same type will be sent to Ukraine from Poland after being retrofitted. Poland will therefore be the first NATO country to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine in the war against Russia.
“Mig-29s are still being used in the defense of Polish airspace. In relation to aircraft, a decision has been made at the highest level, we can say that we are going to send Migs to Ukraine. We have dozens of these aircraft, we have received them in the 1990s” when they were sold “by the German Democratic Republic: they are operational and have a role in defending our airspace. They are at the end of their operational life but are still efficient”, says Duda, illustrating the step which will be formalized in brief. “In the coming days we will deliver 4 aircraft to Ukraine, other appliances are overhauled and prepared. We will replace them with South Korean FA-50s and American F-35s”, explains the president.
Poland’s decision marks a turning point but, at least for now, does not imply a general change of line within NATO. Ukraine, through the words of President Volodymyr Zelensky and other leading government officials, has long reaffirmed the need to receive aircraft from the West. In the United States, part of the political landscape is in favor of sending F-16s. However, the “sovereign decision” taken by Poland to send Mig 29 fighters to Ukraine will not change the line of US President Joe Biden: the White House does not intend to send F-16s, says White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. “It doesn’t change our assessment of the F-16,” he explains.
“These are sovereign decisions that each country makes and we respect them can determine what to give and how to explain it,” adds Kirby, without issuing any further statements on the merits of Poland’s decision and emphasizing that it is not up to the United States “to explain Poland’s decisions in one way or another”.
“Sovereign decisions” is the expression also used by the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, engaged in Niger. “Regarding Poland’s decision to supply jets to Ukraine, these are sovereign decisions made by countries to do what they see fit to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” Blinken said. “Obviously we’re working closely with a number of countries on these issues, but different nations do different things based on what they have and based on what their perceived needs are.”
“Our goal has been to do everything possible to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, what it can use and what it especially needs right now”: the country is “facing both Russia’s offensive on the Eastern Front” and acts “also in view of its own actions in the coming weeks and months to recover a larger part of the territory occupied by Russia”.
