No German permit required
Poland’s fighter jets for Ukraine do not come from GDR stocks
03/31/2023, 06:38 am
It has been clarified: Poland is supplying fighter jets to Ukraine, but these are not from GDR stocks. The federal government does not have to approve the delivery. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is spared an unpleasant decision.
Poland initially does not want to deliver any fighter jets from former GDR stocks to Ukraine. The four Soviet-designed Mig-29s, the delivery of which the Polish government announced two weeks ago, did not come from Germany, the security adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, Jacek Siewiera, clarified in an interview with the German Press Agency. “These are not German planes.”
It is therefore clear that the Federal Government does not have to agree to the delivery either. In 2002, Germany had sold 23 Mig-29 fighter jets to Poland, which the Bundeswehr had taken over from the GDR’s National People’s Army (NVA). The Air Force still has about a dozen of them today, Siewiera said. “And they will initially remain in the service of the Polish armed forces.”
The head of Poland’s National Security Bureau did not want to say where the fighter jets sent to Ukraine come from. “For operational reasons I don’t want to give any further details.” According to media reports, Poland bought twelve Mig-29s from the Soviet Union in 1989 and ten from the Czech Republic six years later.
President Duda announced in mid-March that four Mig-29s would be handed over to Ukraine for defense against Russian attackers. More of these fighter jets are currently being serviced and prepared for later transfer. The country’s leadership made a corresponding decision. If the government in Warsaw had wanted to supply Mig-29s from GDR stocks, they would have had to obtain permission from the federal government to do so.
Fixed contracts, clear rules
This is usually stipulated in the sales contracts for armaments from Germany. For a long time, however, the German government was left in the dark about the origin of the Polish jets intended for Ukraine. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at the end of last week that “there was neither an application nor that we had any clarity as to whether these were actually aircraft that originally came from the NVA.”
On Tuesday, however, Siewiera came to Berlin to hold talks at the Federal Foreign Office and with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s foreign policy adviser, Jens Plötner. Now the matter is settled. The Chancellor is thus spared an unpleasant decision. He has stated several times that he does not want to lead the debate about fighter jets – unlike many other NATO allies who have shown themselves open to it.