Poland wants to double the number of fighter jets it will transfer to Ukraine

Ukraine is preparing a counteroffensive in which the arms support of its Western allies will be decisive.

Tanks, armored infantry, new howitzers, long-range missiles, anti-mine vehicles and a lot of ammunition from NATO countries are flowing across the Polish border into Ukraine.

But there is a weapon that the great powers are reluctant to deliver to kyiv, combat planes.

Poland has once again taken the lead in defending Ukrainian interests and its president, Andrzej Duda, confirmed this Wednesday that it will not only send the 14 MiG-29 fighters to which it has promised, but that its goal is to send as many more .

Duda reiterated his commitment at a reception in Warsaw for Volodimir Zelenski, his Ukrainian counterpart.

It has been Zelenski's third official trip abroad since the start of the Russian invasion, in February 2022, the first that he has made accompanied by his wife, Olena Zelenska.

The previous ones went to Washington and his tour of Europe last February.

While the United States, France and Germany oppose handing over the F-16 fighters that Kiev claims, for fear of raising tension with Russia, Poland leads the Eastern European bloc that is pressing for the attacked country to receive the aircraft.

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Last hour of the war in Ukraine

The Polish president confirmed that four MiG-29s from the Polish Air Force had already been transferred to Ukraine and another four will arrive in four to six weeks.

Duda expressed his willingness to give up his entire fleet of these Soviet-made fighters, that is, 14 more, but recalled that this requires negotiation with Washington, which has the power to veto their export because these aircraft were improved with US technology.

The shipment of this second batch will also depend on Poland replacing these aircraft with more modern Western models, as it plans to do.

Slovakia is the other Eastern European country that has already given aircraft to Ukraine: it delivered four MiG-29s and has promised to transfer a total of 13. For the Ukrainian Air Force these fighters are a blessing because their air inferiority compared to the invader is overwhelming: the defending Army began the war with a fleet of 312 fighters and combat helicopters, Russia had 4,200 units —with 1,200 fighters destined to cover the invasion—, according to recent data from Flight Global, one of the reference publications

the Aeronautic sector.

But Ukraine has been very clear that to win the war it needs NATO planes and not old Soviet models.

The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Colonel Yuri Ihnat, explained last January to EL PAÍS that the objective was to obtain two squadrons of 12 American F-16s each in a first phase.

Ihnat warned at a press conference on March 17 that without these planes, the counteroffensive that his Army is preparing for late spring will not be successful.

Russian defenses are being strengthened and the Ukrainian advance will require much more firepower and resources than the successful operations to recapture the Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts in 2022.

The governments of the United States, France and Germany have made it clear that the supply of the F-16 is not on the agenda.

The advantage of the F-16 is that it is one of the most widely used multi-role combat aircraft – designed for aerial combat and bombing – in the world, so the supply for Ukraine would be guaranteed.

But the US authorities, who have the ability to veto their export -because they have been manufactured in their country-, doubt that it is the most convenient.

On the one hand, they fear that they could be used to attack Russian territory;

on the other, between the training of its pilots, their transfer to Ukraine and the establishment of the supply chain, more than a year would pass.

Instead, Ukrainian pilots are already familiar with Soviet MiGs.

The US military is also skeptical about the effectiveness of the air war in Ukraine when both Armies have proven very effective in the use of mobile anti-aircraft batteries.

“It is a war of mutual air denial,” said four-star US general Philip Breedlone last September at a conference at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.

Conflict over history

Zelensky did not hesitate to affirm before Duda that Poland's support “has saved Ukraine”.

He stated this at a joint appearance in which the Polish president recalled that his government had the record for supplying tanks to Ukraine —300 units of old Soviet models—, among many other types of donated weapons and humanitarian aid for refugees.

Poland is also the EU country that hosts the largest number of Ukrainian families fleeing the Russian invasion – 1.3 million people, compared to 1.05 million in Germany.

Poland is essential for Ukraine's survival and despite the good moment of bilateral relations, Duda did not miss the opportunity to put on the table one of the few frictions that exist between the two countries: the tribute as myths of the homeland of leaders of nationalism Ukrainian radical of the 1930s and 1940s, some of whom were responsible for the deportation and execution—in collusion with the Nazi occupying forces—of thousands of Poles residing in western Ukraine.

The best known and controversial name is that of Stepan Bandera.

The mythification of Bandera has provoked repeated protests by Poland.

The Ukrainian Parliament shared on its social networks last January a photo of Valeri Zaluzhni, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in front of a portrait of Bandera.

“Today we have talked about important issues for the future,” said Duda, “but when we think about the future, we must not forget about history, because there are no taboos between us.

We want to build an honest and reliable memory policy”.

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