Germany has approved Poland’s delivery of MIG-29 fighters to Ukraine

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has given Poland the green light to supply of Soviet-made MIG-29 fighter-bombers to Ukraine which originally came from the Air Force of the defunct German Democratic Republic, according to several German media reports.

A few hours ago, Warsaw asked Berlin for approval to deliver these planes to its Ukrainian neighbors. In March, the Polish government announced its intention to supply the Kiev army with this type of fighter, and in the meantime it has delivered the first units from its military stockpile.

In 2002, Germany sold Poland 23 MIG-29 fighters it had inherited from the National People’s Army of the former GDR after the country’s reunification. Jacek Siewiera, the security adviser to Polish President Andrej Duda, pointed out in March that his country has ten such planes. In arms sales contracts by Germany, there is always a clause according to which the ordering countries are obliged to seek approval from Berlin for the resale or transfer of this material. In addition, until the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Germany had never supplied weapons to warring countries.

The decision of the German executive was immediately celebrated in Berlin. “It is true that the federal government did not delay that decision, but made it the same day the request arrived,” said Marcus Faber, a defense expert for the Liberal Party, a member of Germany’s tripartite government, who commented that “I am sure the Ukrainian side is satisfied with the speed with which this decision was made.”