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Poland will send the first NATO combat jets to Ukraine


Polish President Andrzej Duda said Poland will supply Ukraine with some Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters. It is not clear how many there will be in total, probably between ten and twenty: the first four will arrive in the coming days and the rest to follow. Poland is currently the only NATO country to respond to the request for fighters that Ukraine has been making since the beginning of the Russian invasion and which it had insistently renewed in February, without success. In recent days Poland and Slovakia had urged allied countries to participate in an international shipment of military fighter jets to Ukraine, but it is not clear whether Poland’s decision will be imitated by other countries.

The MiG-29s are old Soviet fighters of the type that Ukraine already had at its disposal – although it is not known how many are left after a year of war – and that Ukrainian pilots already know how to use. However, Ukraine is above all interested in the American-made F-16 fighters, powerful and sophisticated means that are available in large numbers in European military air forces, and which are being phased out because their gradual replacement with the newer and more performing F-35.

Source: ilpost

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