Germany allows Poland to re-export MiG-29 jets to Ukraine

Der Tagesspiegel reported this. 

“Poland has asked the Federal Government of Germany for permission to supply Ukraine with Soviet-style combat aircraft,” the statement says. 

The letter has already been sent to Berlin.

“We are talking about MiG-29 jet aircraft from the old stockpiles of the German Democratic Republic, which Germany has transferred to Poland and which Berlin must agree to transfer,” the journalists explained.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius responded to Poland's request.

“The German government wants to decide this Thursday whether it will give its approval to Poland for a delivery of Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine,” Pistorius was quoted as saying by DPA news agency.

Later, the German newspaper Spiegel reported, citing its sources, that the federal government had approved Poland's request to deliver MiG-29 fighters from the GDR to Ukraine.

In 2002, Germany sold 23 MiG-29 fighters to Poland, which the Bundeswehr received from the GDR's National People's Army (NVA). At the end of March, Jacek Siewiera, a security adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, said that the Polish Air Force now has about a dozen of them.

The German government has confirmed that it has approved Poland's re-export request for the delivery of five MiG-29 aircraft from the former National People's Army's stockpile.

"I am pleased to inform you that we can promise our Polish partners the delivery of five MiG-29s from the former NVA stocks to Ukraine. We received the application only today. I welcome the fact that we in the federal government have come to this decision together. It shows that you can rely on Germany!" said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the press service reports.

• Earlier, Slovakia handed over the first 4 MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine. Poland also delivered the first four aircraft.