After months of frosty politics between Warsaw and Kyiv, the first concrete sign of a thaw comes with a pair of Soviet-designed fighters. Poland has decided to hand two more MiG-29 Fulcrums to Ukraine, a senior Polish defence official told the newspaper Rzeczpospolita on Thursday, 29 October 2026.

The jets are part of a new aid package worth about €50 million, according to LIGA.net, which also covers artillery shells, Piorun air defence missiles and something Ukraine's fighter pilots need badly: 20x102mm rounds for the cannon of their F-16s.

Two airframes will not change the air war on their own. One of them, by the Polish account, is already at the end of its service life. But the decision matters for what it says about one of Ukraine's most important neighbours.

"The decision has been made"

The announcement came from Dariusz Łukowski, director of the Strategy and Defence Planning Department at Poland's Ministry of National Defence. According to Rzeczpospolita, as quoted by TWZ and LIGA.net, only one of the two jets is still flying. The other has reached the end of its service life and is expected to be used as a source of spare parts.

Deputy Defence Minister Paweł Zalewski confirmed the deal to the broadcaster TVP Info and hinted that it might not be the last. "As regards the remaining MiGs, the matter is ongoing," he said, as quoted by TWZ. Poland's defence ministry declined to list the full contents of the package, saying only that it includes equipment the Polish military is retiring or no longer uses.

Why Kyiv still wants old Fulcrums

Ukraine has received F-16s and French Mirage 2000s, but the MiG-29 remains one of the mainstays of its fighter force. Its pilots and ground crews have flown and maintained the type for decades, and a spare airframe is never wasted when a fleet has been flying combat sorties since 2022.

Poland was the first NATO member to send MiG-29s to Ukraine, in 2023, and its remaining Fulcrums are based at Malbork in northern Poland. A Polish official said in December 2025 that the air force had 14 MiG-29s left, six to eight of them close to the end of their service lives, TWZ reported. How many are still on the books now is unclear.

Polish Air Force MiG-29s of the 22nd Air Base at Malbork in action (Frogfoot Media).

The cannon shells may matter more

The less glamorous line in the package could be the most useful one. Ukrainian F-16 pilots use their 20mm cannon against Russian drones, and TWZ has reported that missile stocks are stretched, with AIM-9 Sidewinders and AMRAAMs heavily used against cruise missiles and drones. Every gun kill saves a missile.

A thaw after a bitter year

Relations between the two neighbours soured this year over disputes rooted in the memory of the Second World War, and at the height of the row Poland cancelled a planned transfer of additional MiG-29s, TWZ reports. LIGA.net notes that the new package was agreed despite fresh friction over a 20 October decision by the Lviv regional council, which Poland condemned. Warsaw denied reports that it had halted the aid.

No date has been given for the handover, and Kyiv had not commented publicly when the reports appeared. For now, the message from Warsaw is simple: whatever the politics, Poland is still sending fighters east.

Sources: Rzeczpospolita, TVP Info, LIGA.net, TWZ, Wikipedia