Slovakia suspects Russia of sabotaging its MiG29s

That’s according to Euractiv, Ukrinform reports.

The warplanes in question, the Soviet-era legacy which the Slovakian army had not used since August 2022, were recently handed to Ukraine.

“They were able to fly, but that doesn’t mean they were also capable of combat. The Ukrainians came to Slovakia a week before their departure, brought spare parts and inspected the planes,” Naď explained after the opposition led by the Smer-SD party of ex-Prime Minister Robert Fico strongly criticized the government for giving up “valuable aircraft.”

The faults may have been intentionally inflicted by Russian technical personnel, which had been present at Sliač air base in Slovakia until last year, minister suggested.

“Even the police were investigating it, based on our suspicions. There were parts in the engines of the aircraft that Slovak technicians accessed, and then there were parts that Russian technicians only accessed. The defects appeared only in those parts accessed by Russians,” said Naď.

While the investigation stopped short of proving intention, the Defense Ministry “felt a loss of confidence in the Russian technicians at Sliač because mistakes kept appearing in places only they could get to.”

Lieutenant General Ľubomír Svoboda, Slovakia’s former top war pilot, also suggested that Russians in fact intended to cause damage to the fighter jets.

“We took over an engine from them that was supposed to last 350 hours. And in the end, it only flew 70 hours. What can we make of that? Maybe there was poor workmanship, let’s call it that. I don’t know,” he said.

Russia’s embassy in the country warned that the handover of MiG29s to Ukraine would lead to “escalation” and that the decision-makers would be “held responsible.”

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on March 17, the Slovak government approved sending 13 MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine as part of military aid.