Poland delivered the first MiG-29 fighter jets promised to Ukraine, an adviser to the Polish president said on Monday.
“Some MiGs have already been sent, they are actually useful to Ukraine to protect the security of all of us,” Marcin Przydach told private radio RMF24, quoted by the French news agency AFP.
Without specifying how many aircraft were delivered to Ukraine, Przydach said that “the first part of the transfer process has been completed,” according to the Spanish agency EFE.
The former Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland said that Ukraine will ask for additional support from its allies during the official visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Warsaw on Wednesday.
Przydacz welcomed the formation of a coalition in Western Europe to coordinate and supply Ukraine with military equipment and insisted on the need to speed up deliveries.
“This equipment must be delivered in much larger quantities and much faster so that Ukraine can fight back against Russia,” he added, quoted by the Spanish news agency Europa Press.
Poland and Slovakia have pledged to send at least 30 Soviet-made fighter jets, which the Ukrainian military considers ineffective because they are outdated.
“We need modern multipurpose aircraft,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat recently said.
Kyiv has repeatedly asked its Western allies to send modern fighter-bombers, hoping to get American F-16s.
Polish President Andrzej Duda announced in mid-March that the delivery of four MiG-29s would take place in the near future.
Duda then said that Poland has about 15 MiGs inherited from the former GDR.
Poland was the first member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, its abbreviation in English) to announce it was sending aircraft to Kyiv in the face of the United States’ refusal to allow the delivery of F-16s.
Slovakia also announced the delivery of the first four out of 13 MiG-29s promised to Kyiv.
Ukraine recently refused to confirm to AFP the number of its MiG-29s in service, but it operated 43 aircraft, according to the Flight Global World Air Forces 2023 report released late last year.
Ukraine’s Western allies are providing military equipment to Ukrainian forces to help counter the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022.
In addition to arming, Kyiv’s allies have consistently adopted packages of sanctions against Russian interests to try to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance military action in Ukraine.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered a war that plunged Europe into the worst security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
The balance of civilian and military casualties is unknown, but several sources acknowledged that it would be high.
The UN has confirmed more than 8,400 civilian deaths from the start of the war through March 26, as well as 14,000 civilian injuries.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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