Poland may provide MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine within the next four to six weeks, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday, suggesting that Kyiv’s allies are nearing agreement on the next step in military support for the country, which Russia invaded in February 2022. , reports Reuters.

Poland announced that it is ready to send Soviet MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine as part of a coalition of countries. However, since Kyiv’s allies are cautious about the transfer of fighter jets, it is unclear how long such a process could take.

“It could happen in the next 4-6 weeks,” Morawiecki told a news conference when asked how long it would take Warsaw to deliver the fighter jets.

Last Thursday, Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said that his Polish counterpart had told him at the European Union meeting the day before that Warsaw would agree to a joint process of transferring the planes to Kyiv.

“I think it’s time to make a decision. People are dying in Ukraine, we can really help them, there is no place for Slovak politics,” Yaroslav Nad wrote in a post on his Facebook page, referring to the squadron of 11 MiG-29 aircraft withdrawn from combat operations last summer. .

Responding to a question on Thursday about how many MiG-29 Warsaw can supply, the head of the presidential office, Pavel Shrot, said that “definitely not” it would be 14.

From the beginning of the war, Poland wanted to send fighter jets to Ukraine, but the United States was against it

As recently as March 8 last year, less than two weeks after the start of the Russian invasion, Poland said it wanted to send all of its MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine immediately and free of charge. Then the government in Warsaw offered to transfer its planes to the American base in Ramstein in Germany and transfer them to Kyiv through the mediation of the United States.

However, Washington rejected this plan, and the Pentagon called it “unviable”.

At the time, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby cited the logistical “complexity” of such an operation, also stating that “it’s just not clear to us whether there is a substantial justification for it.”

Then, at the beginning of July, the prime minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger, in turn, raised the issue of the possibility of sending MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine.

Poland received tanks for Ukraine, now it will also receive planes?

In recent months, negotiations have revolved around the possibility of sending Western fighter jets to Ukraine. The officials, who spoke to Politico on condition of anonymity, say sending military aircraft to Ukraine is strongly supported by the Baltic states, which are deeply concerned about the Russian aggression unleashed by Vladimir Putin last year. However, the United States has expressed strong opposition to the idea, and US President Joe Biden responded with a resounding “NO” to the question of sending the F-16.

It is not yet clear whether the administration in Washington has changed its position regarding the transfer to Kyiv of some of the Soviet aircraft inherited from the countries of the former communist bloc.

However, let us recall that it was the Polish government that put strong pressure on Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, which Warsaw announced on January 11.

Later, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that while his government had submitted a formal request to Berlin for permission for the transfer, as required by NATO’s arms re-export rules, Germany’s negative conclusion would be ignored.

Just two days after Morawiecki’s comments, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Berlin had approved Poland’s request, would grant all similar requests and, in turn, provide Ukraine with a company of 14 Leopard 2 tanks.

Shortly after Chancellor Scholz’s statement on February 25, US President Joe Biden, in turn, announced that the United States would send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

American media later reported, citing sources familiar with the negotiations, that Germany agreed to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine only if the United States also agreed to send American-made heavy combat vehicles to avoid incurring the wrath of Moscow.

Thus, the question now is whether Poland’s decision to send planes to Ukraine will have the same effect as in the case of tanks.

In this sense, there are also hesitant responses from some powerful European countries, such as France and Great Britain, but they do not completely rule out the option of sending fighter jets.

Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Britain is ready to support any country that wants to immediately send fighter jets to Ukraine.

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