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UK ready to support Poland's air defense after MIGs delivered to Ukraine

20.03.2023 14:00
The UK is ready to support Poland’s air defense after Warsaw donates MiG-29 fighter aircraft to Ukraine, British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said on Monday.
A Polish MiG-29 fighter jet.
A Polish MiG-29 fighter jet.PAP/Adam Warżawa

“We will look very positively at a Polish request to fill in the gaps that have arisen”, Heappey told German newspaper Die Welt. Poland has not requested any assistance from its NATO allies after last week the country’s president Andrzej Duda announced that Warsaw would donate four of its MiGs to Kyiv in the coming days, making the country the first Ukraine ally to do so.

The move was welcomed by Ukraine as well as Lithuania: “[We] welcome the decision of Polish President Andrzej Duda to send fighter jets to Ukraine”, the country's president Gitanas Nausėda said. “It’s a major development that will significantly boost Ukraine’s fight against the aggressor. True leadership brings Ukraine’s victory and peace in Europe closer”.

One day after Duda made the announcement, Slovakia also declared that it would transfer 13 of its MiG-29s to Ukraine.

(jh)

Source: PAP