Slovakia declares jet deliveries to Kiev 'illegal'
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A senior Slovak defense official states that the government lacked the authority to send MiG-29 planes to Ukraine in 2023.
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Two Polish MiG-29 fighter jets taking part in a Nato exercise near the air base in Lask, central Poland, in 2022. (AFP)
State secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Defense, Igor Melicher, stated that the previous government in Bratislava had no authority to donate Soviet-era MiG-29 warplanes to Kiev.
In March 2023, the interim government under Prime Minister Eduard Heger approved the delivery of 13 MiG-29s. The new government, led by Robert Fico, has since called for a legal review of this decision.
"The MiG-29 fighter jets were delivered to Ukraine illegally," Melicher said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday. He stressed that the Defense Ministry is "preparing a legal action."
Melicher made his statement after ombudsman Robert Dobrovodsky, who was tasked with reviewing the delivery of the aircraft, revealed that the government has failed to find the required legal analysis of the possibility of donating the MiG-29s to Kiev.
"The ministry recently told me that it was trying to comply with the request and find the analysis. However, it said that neither it nor any of its branches had the analysis at their disposal," Dobrovodsky said as quoted by TASR on Tuesday.
"It also stated that the analysis isn’t even registered in its databases in any form," he added.
Previous government under fire
Melicher argued that Heger’s caretaker government lacked the authority to make final decisions on delivering planes abroad. "The Constitution forbids an interim government to take major steps in foreign policy, and sending fighter jets worth more than €500 million ($537 million) is certainly such a step," he wrote.
Prime Minister Robert Fico, who recently survived an assassination attempt by a pro-Ukrainian activist, opposes sending arms to Kiev and advocates for resolving the conflict through diplomacy.
Defense Minister Robert Kalinak also criticized his predecessor, stating in May that the previous government acted "in the most irresponsible way when it handed over [the weapons] that we needed for our own safety."
Kiev has been urging its Western allies to speed up the planned delivery of US-made F-16 fighters. According to Politico, Ukrainian officials expressed "frustration" this month over the insufficient number of pilots being produced by the current training programs in the US and other countries.
Meanwhile, Russia has stated that no amount of Western military aid will deter its military operation in Ukraine.
Western countries have aided Zelensky's government with their best military technologies to ensure his survival after the Ukraine war commenced in February 2022. They continue to supply the country with air defense missiles, multiple-launch rocket systems, depleted uranium ammunition, and state-of-the-art armored vehicles. This has only prolonged the crisis in Ukraine as the Western powers push for confrontation and refuse to engage in peace talks with Russia.
US prolonging Ukraine war by sending weapons to strike Russia: Experts
The US is pushing for a "dangerous escalation" and a prolongation of the war in Ukraine by allowing limited strikes on Russian territory with US-supplied weapons, experts told Sputnik on Monday.
World-renowned economist and president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Jeffrey Sachs, explained to Sputnik that "This is yet another escalation. It is dangerous", adding, "The only sane course is Russia-US negotiation, based on ending the US plan for NATO enlargement to Ukraine, establishing Ukraine’s neutrality, ending the war, and settling other pending issues."
Establishing Ukraine as a neutral state, Sachs clarified, would not only stop the war but it would save lives. "This entire conflict could have been and should have been avoided, based on neutrality, collective security, and mutual respect," he said.
This comes shortly after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed that Ukraine has already started striking Russian territory with US-provided weapons after Joe Biden greenlit the decision.
In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned NATO member nations to know "what they are playing with" and requested a meeting of the UN Security Council on June 14 to discuss the matter.
