Three and a half years after the last Slovak MiG-29 crossed into Ukraine, the jets are back in a Slovak legal file. On Friday 30 October 2026, Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka ordered criminal proceedings over the 2023 donation of the fighters and Kub air defence equipment to be reopened, overturning a decision that had closed the case a year earlier.

Žilinka announced the move on Facebook. He said the original decision to halt the proceedings had been premature, took the case away from the Bratislava prosecutors who had handled it, and handed it to the regional prosecutor in Trenčín with instructions to restart the investigation.

The reopening does not mean anyone has been found guilty, or that a crime has been established. But it revives one of the most bitter disputes in Slovak politics: whether giving Ukraine an entire fighter fleet was an act of solidarity, or, as the current government has claimed, a crime.

What exactly was reopened

According to Slovak broadcaster JOJ’s news site noviny.sk, the proceedings concern the donation of MiG-29 fighters, Kub launchers and a Kub radar station. They were opened on suspicion of breach of duty in the management of another’s property, together with abuse of power by a public official. The case is being run “in the matter” rather than against a named individual.

Žilinka said he had reviewed the work of the Bratislava Regional Prosecutor’s Office, a department of his own office and the police investigator who closed the case, and concluded that the facts had not been established well enough to decide it either way.

The decision is a reversal for the Prosecutor General’s Office itself. In September 2026, Slovak daily Pravda and Interfax-Ukraine both reported, the office’s serious crime department had reviewed the earlier decisions and found them correct and lawful.

Thirteen Fulcrums for Kyiv

The Slovak Air Force retired its MiG-29s on 31 August 2022, after years of spare-parts and maintenance problems tied to a Russian servicing contract, and handed air policing to Poland and the Czech Republic until its new F-16 Block 70s arrived. On 17 March 2023, the caretaker government of Prime Minister Eduard Heger approved sending 13 of the grounded jets to Ukraine.

The package comprised nine MiG-29AS single-seaters, two MiG-29As, a MiG-29UBS and a MiG-29UB two-seater; three of the airframes had no engines and were meant as a source of spare parts. Two Kub launchers, a radar and 200 missiles went with them. Ukrainian pilots flew the first four jets out on 23 March 2023, and the rest followed.

The Slovak Armed Forces marked the handover with a video of the first four fighters leaving for the Ukrainian Air Force. According to Reuters, the donation was made in return for a pledge of compensation from NATO allies.

The Slovak Armed Forces’ own video of 23 March 2023, marking the handover of the first four MiG-29s to Ukraine.

From criminal complaint to closure

Robert Fico returned as prime minister in late 2023 and halted state military aid to Ukraine. In June 2024 his Defence Ministry filed a criminal complaint over the jet transfer. According to the Kyiv Independent, the ministry accused Heger and former defence minister Jaroslav Naď of sabotage, abuse of power and mismanagement of public property, which both men deny; Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák called it treason. Fico has said the donation left Slovakia dependent on allied air patrols.

The case did not survive the investigation. Police halted it at the end of October 2025, and the Bratislava prosecutor’s office said on 10 November that the act did not constitute a criminal offence. On 5 February 2026, Bratislava Regional Prosecutor Rastislav Remeta told a press conference that three of four aid cases had been dropped, covering the MiG-29s, the S-300 air defence system donated in 2022, and the ending of the Russian maintenance contract.

Remeta, as reported by the TASR news agency, said the roughly 40-year-old equipment had almost zero real value, even though the Defence Ministry had put the damage at more than €500 million using book value. Reuters quoted him saying the jets and Kub systems were outdated, not fully operational and lacked missiles and pilots. Fico responded at the time that the prosecution service had entered the political fight on the side of the opposition, Pravda reported.

Politics, then and now

Naď, now leader of the Democrats party, which is outside parliament, said after Friday’s decision that he respects it but expects no surprising conclusions, because in his view no crime was committed, according to TASR and noviny.sk. Reuters described the case as an illustration of the highly polarised Slovak political scene, in which Fico has accused his predecessors of using prosecutions against his own party when it was in opposition.

The jets themselves are long past caring. The Slovakia MiG-29 case now goes back to investigators in Trenčín, while Ukraine keeps receiving Fulcrums from elsewhere: as Afterburner reported on 30 October, Warsaw is sending two more Polish MiG-29s. In Bratislava, the question of whether giving away the old fighters was legal is, once again, open.

Sources: Reuters, Interfax-Ukraine, Kyiv Independent, TASR, Pravda (Slovakia), noviny.sk, Slovak Armed Forces, Wikipedia (Slovak Air Force)