Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has asked the European Union for jet fighter jets some EU countries plan to supply them, EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell said Sunday.
Any planes would be supplied directly by EU member states and not funded through an arrangement announced earlier for the EU to finance weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
Mr. Borrell said that Mr. Kuleba had requested planes that Ukrainian Air Force pilots can fly. Ukraine’s jet fighters are Soviet-built MiG and Sukhoi models.
Since training a fighter pilot to fly a type of aircraft is a time-consuming and expensive process, it seems reasonable to assume that the only rapid transfer possible might involve a fighter already serving in the Ukraine Air Force.
Some current EU members that were once part of the USSR-led Warsaw Pact still fly such planes or have old ones parked.
These countries plan to hand over their warplanes to #Ukraine.
- Bulgaria (MiG-29) 16 units
- Bulgaria (Su-25) 14 units
- Poland (MiG-29) 28 units
- Slovakia (MiG-29) 12 units
The aircraft could be deployed at the Polish airport, where Ukrainian pilots will carry out combat missions.