The federal government allows Poland to pass on five MiG-29 fighter jets from GDR old stock to Ukraine, which is being attacked by Russia. A corresponding application was approved within a few hours. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) welcomed the decision in a statement. “That shows: You can rely on Germany!” he explained.
Pistorius does not see this as a change of course for western combat aircraft. Everything that helps quickly is important, he said in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
“It’s about MiGs because they can be used immediately by the Ukrainian armed forces, because they are known, because they can be flown immediately, because both maintenance and repair and maintenance can be carried out almost seamlessly and seamlessly,” said Pistorius. “None of this applies to Western aircraft, especially those that we have in Germany. That’s why we don’t have this debate.”
Pistorius, who continued his trip in West Africa, announced that formal written confirmation to the Polish government for permission to re-export to Ukraine would go out on Friday. A corresponding application was approved within a few hours. These are aircraft that Germany gave to Poland in 2003. The Bundeswehr had taken it over from former stocks of the National People’s Army (NVA) of the GDR.
Disclosure to third parties subject to approval
FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who accompanies the defense minister on his trip to Africa, had previously spoken out clearly in favor of the delivery. “We should definitely approve that,” said the chairwoman of the Bundestag’s defense committee. She expected approval from the federal government. “I’m assuming that the Federal Chancellery won’t get any cardiac arrhythmias. And if they do, we’ll help them get their hearts beating calmly again.”
In the early 2000s, Germany had sold 22 MiG-29 fighter jets, which the Bundeswehr had taken over from the NVA after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to Poland. The security advisor to Polish President Andrzej Duda, Jacek Siewiera, said at the end of March that the Polish Air Force still has about a dozen of them today. The contract for the transfer of the aircraft stipulated that a transfer to third parties required written consent from Germany. Hence the compulsion to make a decision in Berlin.
The fact that it was met so quickly is probably also due to the fact that the federal government did not want to face the criticism heard from its eastern allies in the first year of the war that it was procrastinating for too long. “Too late, too little” (too late, too little) was a common accusation against Berlin.
Eight MiG-29s from Poland already delivered
In March, Poland announced the delivery of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine to help the country fight the Russian attack. Initially, however, no machines from former GDR stocks were delivered, that is now changing.
President Duda announced last week that his country had now delivered eight MiG-29s to Ukraine. Four of the planes were given to Kiev “over the past few months,” he said after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw. Four more MiG-29s were “recently” delivered to the neighboring country attacked by Russia. In addition, six MiG-29s are currently being prepared for delivery.
Other MiG-29s remained in service with the Polish armed forces for the time being, Duda said. Only if they are successively replaced by modern fighter jets, which Poland has already ordered in South Korea and the USA, could these machines also be left to Ukraine.
Duda also said on the occasion: “We are setting an example for other countries and breaking their stubbornness and resistance when it comes to supplying arms.” Berlin was able to refute the accusation of stubbornness with the MiG-29 lightning decision.
