BRATISLAVA --- The Slovak government approved sending MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Friday, stepping up its military assistance to Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion.
Slovakia is the second country to send war planes to Kyiv after Poland, which announced on Thursday it would do so.
Its fleet of 11 MiG-29 planes was retired last summer and most of them are not in operational condition. It will send those that are operational and the rest will go for spare parts.
Slovakia will also supply part of its KUB air-defence system, Heger said.
NATO allies in the former communist eastern europe such as Poland and Slovakia have been particularly vocal supporters of Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
On Thursday, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced that Poland will send four MIG-29 jets to Ukraine in the next few days.
Both Poland and Slovakia had indicated they were ready to hand over their planes, but only as part of a wider international coalition doing the same. It remains unclear whether other countries would also share their military planes.
The debate over whether to provide non-NATO member Ukraine with military fighter jets started last year, but NATO allies held off, citing concern about escalating the alliance's role in the war.
-ends-
