Slovakia sends 13 Soviet MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. Prime Minister Eduard Heger announced this on Friday. Poland announced on Thursday that it would deliver four jets.
When Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy asked for more weapons and fighter jets, he replied: “We will do our best,” Heger wrote on Twitter. Promises must be kept, so his government has approved the delivery of 13 MiG-29s to Ukraine. “I am glad that others are doing the same,” said the Slovak prime minister.
Ukraine will also get an air defense system
In addition to the fighter jets, Slovakia will also send part of the KUB air defense system to Ukraine, the prime minister said at a press conference. He did not give an exact date for the delivery.
According to Heger, Slovakia is no longer using the machines. They retired last summer. It is given to Ukraine so that it can defend itself against the Russian offensive war. “We are on the right side of history,” Heger said. He rejected fears that this move would draw Slovakia into the war in Ukraine.
A corresponding international agreement was unanimously accepted by the cabinet, the decision was made in accordance with the Slovak constitution and President Zuzana Caputova was also informed, the prime minister stressed. Still, leaving the fighter jets behind in Slovakia is controversial.
Can the government do that?
The decision was preceded by a week of disagreement over whether the government, which has only been in office temporarily since the loss of a no-confidence motion in December until new elections in September, has the authority to do so. Because according to the constitution, a mere executive cabinet is not allowed to decide on important issues of foreign and economic policy. According to some constitutional experts and the opposition in parliament, the transfer of fighter jets worth some 400 million euros to a neighboring country at war is certainly one of them.
The MiG are currently still in Slovakia. According to media reports, Ukrainian technicians have already been to Sliac military airport to determine the condition of the aircraft and what modifications will be required. The NATO country Slovakia does not currently have its own operational combat aircraft. The delivery of long-ordered new F-16 aircraft from the US has been delayed. Slovakia’s airspace is therefore protected by neighboring countries Poland, the Czech Republic and recently Hungary.
Slovakia wants to take advantage of delivery
Slovakia hopes for millions in compensation for the delivery of its fighter jets to Ukraine. Part of it must come from the EU, most of it in the form of new technology from the US, Defense Minister Jaroslav Naď recently announced.
Source: Krone
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