"Not a pile of scrap". President of Slovakia considers the transfer of MiG-29 to Ukraine a mistake

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini has called the previous government's decision to transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine a mistake, rejecting claims that they were a "pile of scrap." This is stated in his post in the social network Facebook.

He is convinced that the ability to protect its airspace is a manifestation of the sovereignty of each country. That is why, when he was Prime Minister (2018-2020), he ordered to maintain the combat capability of the then Slovak MiG-29 fighters until they were replaced by F-16s.

"I still think it was a mistake that Slovakia got rid of its MiGs, which at the time had no replacement. No other country has ever done so, having sacrificed its own weapons, and remained completely dependent on the help of its neighbors," Pellegrini wrote.

He rejected the then government coalition's claim that the MiG-29 fighters were just a "pile of scrap."

"If this were the case, none of them would have been able to fly from Slovakia to Ukraine. Even when I was Prime Minister, I had the opportunity to personally test the MiG-29, and the aircraft proved to be capable of performing all the tasks," the Slovak president added.

He added that he would not interfere in the political or criminal clashes that have arisen in recent days around the transfer of the fighter jets.

In his opinion, the people of Slovakia have the right to know whether the government of Eduard Heger, which was operating without the trust of the parliament, had the right to transfer the planes to Ukraine.

Recently, the pro-Russian Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico criticized the prosecutor's office, which saw no signs of a crime in the transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine. He said that the prosecutor's office "entered the political struggle on the side of the opposition".

• March 23, 2023 Slovakia handed over The Ukrainian Armed Forces receive the first four MiG-29 fighters. As of April 17 all 13 MiG-29s from Slovakia were in Ukraine.
• Repeatedly, the current government, led by Fico criticized his predecessors for providing military assistance to Ukraine.
• On December 10, 2025, the prosecutor's office acknowledged that the transfer of miG-29 fighters It was not a criminal offense in Ukraine.