Is Ukraine about to get more MiG-29 fighter jets to help defend against Russia’s invasion? Over the last few days, the answer has …
Is Ukraine about to get more MiG-29 fighter jets to help defend against Russia’s invasion? Over the last few days, the answer has shifted from „yes“ to „no“ to „maybe.“ While Ukraine’s military continues to batter Russian forces on the ground, the airspace remains contested. On Tuesday, a Pentagon official said both sides were still flying missions every day and retained their air-defense missile capabilities. Providing more jets to Ukraine’s Air Force would help it take on the larger Russian Aerospace Force, but the transfer of foreign MiG-29s to Ukraine is a fraught issue — and far from a done deal. Reports about supplying Soviet-made aircraft to Ukraine surfaced on February 26, when in a “ watershed moment “ the EU approved a first-of-its-kind transfer of military aid worth 500 million euros to Ukraine. As part of that aid, European officials discussed providing fighter and attack aircraft to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses. On February 27, the EU’s top diplomat went public with that plan. „We are going to supply arms and even fighter jets,“ said Josep Borrel, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security. Ukraine’s foreign minister „has been asking us that they need the type of fighter jets that the Ukrainian army is able to operate,“ Borrel added. „We know what kind of planes and some [EU] member states have these kinds of planes.“ A few hours after Borrel spoke, Alexandre Krauss, a senior adviser to the EU Parliament, said on Twitter that the fighter jets would be delivered within the hour, surprising the world. By the next morning, Krauss had said he misspoke and officials from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Slovakia had also said their countries weren’t giving aircraft to anyone. The effort appeared stalled until this weekend, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to US lawmakers and asked them help facilitate the transfer of jets, including MiG-29s, to Ukraine. Afterward, many of those lawmakers spoke approvingly of sending jets, unmanned aircraft, and billions in aid to the embattled country. Only a handful of countries have aircraft that meet Ukraine’s needs.
