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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
There are a lot of strange things in the story of Poland's deliveries of the MiG-29 to the Kyiv regime
2023-03-19
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Stanislav Stremidlovsky

[REGNUM] In recent days, in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, Poland has been intensively creating informational occasions, obviously wanting to get a reaction from both Western countries and Russia. In particular, statements about the supply of MiG-29 aircraft to the Kyiv regime. However, Warsaw has come close to the moment when the use of an external factor, political Russophobia, ceases to bring results.

When Polish President Andrzej Duda, at a joint press conference with his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel on Thursday, March 16, in the Belvedere Palace announced the transfer of the MiG-29 aircraft in service with the Polish army to the Kiev regime, this initially caused a stormy enthusiastic reaction from a number of Western publications. Warsaw was actively praised and set as an example as the first student. But then nuances and details began to be added.

First. According to Duda, “literally, in the next few days, we are transferring, as far as I remember, four aircraft to Ukraine, they are in full working order." But at the same time, the Polish president added, these MiG-29s have reached the limit of operation.

“Can these aircraft, whose main function is air defense, not ground support, give the Ukrainians an advantage in the conflict?" asked the French newspaper Le Figaro. "If air superiority is the most important and very often the first controversial goal of any war, then the few MiG-29s that the countries of the former Warsaw Pact can provide to Ukraine will not be able, according to the experts we interviewed, to prevent Russia from firmly controlling the air."

In other words, Warsaw made a symbolic gesture of support for the Kyiv regime, which will not change anything on the battlefield.

In turn, the Minister of Defense of Slovakia Yaroslav Nad, who announced after the Poles about the transfer of the MiG-29s in service with the Slovak army, stressed that such aircraft "we can no longer use anyway." Although even in this case, opposition parties criticized Bratislava's decision, and opinion polls show that "a clear majority of Slovaks oppose the supply of combat aircraft."

Second. Duda specified that the Polish MiG-29s are “those machines that we once, in the early 1990s, accepted from the army of the German Democratic Republic.” Therefore, write German publications, in accordance with the so-called end-use clause, Warsaw can transfer fighter jets to Ukraine only with the consent of the German government.

In the ruling German coalition, the junior partners of the SPD were clearly in favor of granting permission. The FDP member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann and the head of the Bundestag Committee on European Affairs, Anton Hofreiter, representing the Greens, called on the authorities to do this . Against - MP from the "left" Gregor Gysi.

"If we put in fighter jets now, things will get even worse,” he told Welt TV. “I don’t want us to gradually move towards a third world war."

But in general, Berlin today “was cautious about the planned delivery by Poland” of the MiG-29 to the Kiev regime, especially since no official notification has yet been received from it, said federal government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

Third. Earlier, the Polish authorities wanted to create a “broad coalition of countries" in the issue of aircraft supplies, as in the previous case with the transfer of tanks. Apparently, Warsaw hoped to "spur" not only Berlin, but also Washington. But Americans react ambiguously.

Poland sometimes runs ahead of the locomotive, The New York Times notes, recalling how in March last year the Poles announced their readiness to transfer the MiG-29 to the Kyiv regime.

"However, this plan collapsed after Warsaw unexpectedly announced that instead of transferring the aircraft directly to Ukraine, it would send them to an American air base in Germany for transfer,” the publication emphasized. "Stunned by this idea, Washington, which was not consulted, rejected it, and not one of the planes left Poland."

So what is the goal of Warsaw?

In recent days, in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, she has been intensively creating informational occasions, obviously wanting to get a political and forceful reaction from both Western countries and Russia. Only this week, in addition to the “aircraft intrigue”, there was a statement by Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak about his intention to deploy the first American HIMARS launchers near the border with the Kaliningrad region. And the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland, Mariusz Kaminski, announced the disclosure of an allegedly “Russian” spy network.

The Italian magazine Limes links the latter to domestic political risks for the ruling Polish Law and Justice (PiS) party, which, in the year of parliamentary elections, is facing voter discontent with excessive support for the Kiev regime and growing xenophobia in Poland towards Ukrainian refugees. The publication notes that this is not caused by some kind of "pro-Russian sympathies" of the Poles, but "aversion to the revelry of the" ideology of Bandera "- an accomplice of the Nazis, a war criminal associated with the genocide of Jews and Poles, but a patriot for many Ukrainians."

Law and Justice, at the same time, is trying not to cross the line, which could lead to very serious problems for Poland. However, PiS has come close to the moment when the use of an external factor, political Russophobia, ceases to bring results. And, as one can judge, neither the West nor Moscow is going to play along with the ruling party.

Commenting on Duda’s statements about the transfer of the MiG-29, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov pointed out that “the supply of this military equipment, as we have repeatedly said, cannot affect the outcome of a special military operation, but can bring additional troubles for Ukraine itself. and the Ukrainian people. That is, the emphasis is not on the games of Warsaw, even if it tries to fan the fire under the “Kyiv frying pan”.

March 18, 2023
Stanislav Stremidlovsky
Posted by:badanov

#1  The Poles are in the midst of replacing their Russian aircraft with S Korean and American hardware. The MiG's will need to be disposed of. And all the maintenance gear. And parts.
How can we write this off?
Posted by: ed in texas   2023-03-19 11:29  

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