Poland hands Ukraine two more MiG-29 fighter jets

Poland will soon hand Ukraine two more MiG-29 fighter jets as part of a new military aid package worth about €50 million (about $56 million), Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported on Oct. 29, in a story quickly picked up by Ukrainian defense outlet Milarnyi. Reserve Lt. Gen. Dariusz Łukowski, director of the Polish Defense Ministry's Strategy and Defense Planning Department, confirmed the transfer to the newspaper and said the decision had been made, without giving a date beyond "in the near future." Only one of the two jets is still flying. The other has reached the end of its service life, and Rzeczpospolita reported that Ukraine may use it as a source of spare parts. The rest of the package is mostly munitions. Rzeczpospolita reported that Poland will also send 155 mm and 152 mm artillery shells, 20 mm rounds for the six-barrel cannon fitted to F-16 fighters, which Ukrainian pilots use to shoot down Russian drones, and missiles for the Piorun shoulder-fired air defense system built by Polish manufacturer Mesko. Ukrainian defense officials had said in September that the Polish donation would be worth €50 million and would include air defense equipment. Poland's Defense Ministry declined to detail the contents, saying only that the package draws on equipment being retired by the Polish armed forces or no longer needed. The two aircraft are a small addition to a fleet Poland has been feeding since the early part of the war. Poland began openly handing over MiG-29s in March 2023, and by that May then-Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said Ukraine had received 10 of them, Militarnyi reported. In total, Poland has given Ukraine 14 MiG-29s, Militarnyi said. Rzeczpospolita reported the same figure, adding that the jets were sent in 2022 and 2023 in varying technical condition and with little publicity. A further transfer has been discussed for more than two years. In July 2024, Poland's security agreement with Ukraine included a pledge to consider sending at least one more MiG-29 squadron, but Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw could not simply give up jets still flying air policing missions unless allies supplied replacements. At the time, the Polish Air Force still had 14 MiG-29s: 11 single-seat MiG-29As and three two-seat MiG-29UB trainers. In late 2025, the two governments began talks on the last Polish MiG-29s. Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said the handover would benefit Poland because Warsaw would receive Ukrainian drone and missile technology in return. That exchange has not happened. As of mid-June 2026, Poland's deputy defense minister said no aircraft from that batch had been delivered, and Rzeczpospolita reported the technology transfer stalled at the political level after Ukraine's president named a military unit after heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a wartime nationalist force whose legacy is deeply contested in Poland. Poland can spare the jets because their missions are moving to newer aircraft. The MiG-29 has kept a shrinking quick reaction alert role over the Baltic, and Rzeczpospolita reported that its tasks are now handled by Polish F-16s and the first 12 South Korean-built FA-50 light fighters, which reached full operational readiness in 2026. For Ukraine, every additional airframe matters. The Ukrainian Air Force still relies heavily on the Soviet-designed MiG-29, which it has kept flying through deliveries from Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria and through cannibalizing retired jets for parts, while losing aircraft to Russian strikes on airfields and in the air. The new package also follows a separate Polish contribution of Patriot interceptors. Rzeczpospolita reported that Poland has given Ukraine 10 PAC-3 MSE missiles in total, five earlier this year and five more through an international donation led by the United States with NATO. Kosiniak-Kamysz said in July that Poland's donations to Ukraine since 2022 were worth about 16.45 billion zlotys, most of them delivered in 2022 and 2023, and the ministry later declassified the full list of transferred equipment.