Poland and Slovakia announced their readiness to provide Ukraine with MiG-29 fighters. This would be a significant strengthening of Ukrainian aviation.

Mikhail Samus, deputy director of the Army Research Center, told Channel 24 about this. In particular, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki even stated that Ukraine could receive MiG-29 aircraft within 4-6 weeks.

According to Samus, Slovakia is ready to provide 10 such fighters. The Poles have a few dozen more. However, it is not yet known exactly how many of them will be allocated to Kyiv.

Poland and Slovakia could upgrade the MiG-29

The analyst recalled that Poland had long declared its intention to share Soviet fighters with Ukraine. However, then Warsaw took a break. A similar situation arose with Slovakia.

I have a suspicion that these seemingly refusals to provide us with aircraft were due to the fact that the MiG-29 was modernized, – Samus suggested.

As the deputy director of the Army Research Center explained, the Soviet MiG-29 aircraft differs from modern F-16s or Eurofighters primarily in its radar equipment.

Radars on modern fighters make it possible to carry out target designation for any weapon, for example, for air-to-air missiles, for several tens, and possibly up to hundreds of kilometers.

Mikhail Samus suggested which MiG-29s could be provided to Ukraine: watch the video

What benefits will Ukraine get

Samus expressed the hope that such radar equipment could be installed on Soviet MiGs as part of the modernization.

This would immediately bring the Ukrainian aviation at least to the level of the Russian one. If Ukrainian aviation were given such radar capabilities, then the Russians could not even afford to approach Ukrainian airspace. After all, enemy planes would immediately be shot down,” the analyst said.

He added that the modernization would also make it possible to integrate Western air-to-air weapons into Soviet fighters, and possibly for ground strikes.

What role can MiG-29 fighters play in the war

Samus noted that it would be good if at least some of the Slovak and Polish MiG-29s were upgraded to this level.

Then even one squadron of such aircraft would significantly increase the capabilities of Ukrainian aviation. Of course, this is not the same as an F-16 squadron. But the upgraded MiG-29s would bring us significantly closer to the capabilities of Western aviation,” the analyst said.

The Deputy Director of the Army Research Center emphasized that the strengthening of modernized aviation would be very helpful in the context of the upcoming counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After all, then it will be very important for Ukraine to have air supremacy.

MiG-29 for Ukraine: briefly

• Warsaw officially agreed to the general transfer of MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine along with Bratislava.
• Slovak Defense Minister Yaroslav Nagy emphasized that it was time to make a decision regarding the MiG-29 and confirmed that Poland had officially agreed to send them to Ukraine together.
• Recently, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that his country is ready to transfer to Ukraine the remaining part of the MiG-29 fighters in Poland, which serves in its air force.