For months the story ran the wrong way. Poland was going to scrap its last MiG-29 fighters rather than hand them to Ukraine, a drones-for-jets deal apparently dead in the water. On 7 August 2026 the narrative flipped.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, told European Pravda that Warsaw now has a “clear intention” to transfer four retired MiG-29s to Kyiv. The jets have already been struck from the Polish Air Force’s books and moved to the country’s Armament Agency — the bureaucratic waystation before an export.

It is a modest number. But for a Ukrainian air arm flying a Soviet-and-Western patchwork under daily fire, four more Fulcrums its pilots already know how to fly is not nothing.

Airworthy, but not ready

Ukrainian specialists have already crawled over the four aircraft. Their verdict was mixed: the jets need extensive and expensive modernization before they could fly combat, yet they are far from scrap. According to Bodnar, the engines and airframes retain enough service life that cannibalising them for spares would be a waste. Earlier inspections singled out the landing gear as the biggest worry after years of thin maintenance.

The real obstacle is money. Both Warsaw and Kyiv lack the funds and the equipment to bring the jets up to a usable standard, and neither wants to foot the bill alone. That, not politics, is what now stands between these Fulcrums and a Ukrainian squadron.

From a drones-for-jets deal to a quiet reversal

The backstory is telling. Late last year Poland floated handing Ukraine some of its MiG-29s in exchange for access to Ukrainian drone technology — hardware forged and combat-proven over three years of war. By July the arrangement had stalled over the technology package, and reports suggested Poland would simply retire and scrap the fleet. Talks had at one point covered as many as nine aircraft.

Now four are back on the table, and Bodnar notes Poland is not short of suitors: another NATO member, reportedly Bulgaria, has also asked about the jets. Poland has already delivered more than a dozen MiG-29s to Ukraine since 2023, so the pipeline is well worn. The sticking point was never willingness — it was the invoice.

For Ukraine, every airframe counts, but Zelensky’s earlier point still frames the whole debate: jets are only as useful as the trained crews to fly them. On that score, at least, the Fulcrum is the easy part.

Whether these four ever wear Ukrainian colours depends on a modernization bill nobody has yet agreed to pay. The political will, for once, is not the problem.

Sources: Militarnyi (interview with European Pravda); United24 Media; Defense Express; Pravda EN. Figures and intentions are attributed to Ambassador Bodnar and Polish officials as reported.