Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger announced on Friday evening that his country would send 13 fighter jets to Ukraine to support its defense against a Russian invasion. Heger’s announcement was expected, given that for weeks the Slovakian government had been arguing that Western countries should help Ukraine by sending fighter jets.
Slovakia thus became the second NATO country to decide to send fighter jets to Ukraine: the first was Poland, which made the announcement on Thursday. Both will send MiG-29s, old fighters of Soviet origin that Ukraine already had available – although it is not known how many are left after a year of war – and that Ukrainian pilots already know how to use. For months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been calling for Western countries to send fighter jets to Ukraine, but many governments had expressed doubts about it.