Slovaika Violated Agreement with Russia in Transferring MiG-29s to Ukraine: Russian FSMTC

Russia’s Federal Service of Military Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) has accused Slovakia of gross violation of the agreement between the Russian Federation and the Slovak Republic in transferring four MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine.

According to the Military-Technical Cooperation agreement of April 29, 1997: "each of the Contracting Parties will not be without the written consent of the other Contracting Party sell or transfer to third countries weapons and military equipment, technical documentation for their production, information and materials obtained or acquired as a result of bilateral military-technical cooperation," the FSMTC said quoting the agreement.

However, the Minister of Defense of Slovakia, J. Nagy, has said, "there was no such document in the archives of the Ministry [of Defense of Slovakia]."

“In this regard, we are ready to assist the Slovak Party by providing it with a copy from the original of the relevant intergovernmental document stored in the archives of the Russian Federation,” FSMTC said in a statement today.

At the same time, we declare that the delivery of MiG-29 fighters to Slovakia was carried out on the basis of a contract signed with the Ministry of Defense of Slovakia on July 8, 1993.

Thus, it is not only a violation by Bratislava of the relevant Intergovernmental Agreement, but also of the contractual obligations assumed.

Moreover, in 2009, the Ministry of Defense of Slovakia signed a contract with JSC "RAC "MiG" for the subscription service of MiG-29 aircraft of the Slovak Air Force.

Throughout the entire period, the Russian Side has consistently fulfilled its obligations to maintain these aircraft in a combat-ready state.

However, last year the Slovak side announced the termination of this agreement. At the same time, the issues of returning to the Russian Side expensive equipment imported for servicing aircraft as part of the fulfillment of contractual obligations, as well as payment for services already rendered, remained unresolved.

Despite the repeated proposals of the FSMTC of Russia and Russian contractors to resolve the situation in a civilized manner, the Ministry of Defense of Slovakia refuses to negotiate and resolve these issues. Equipment delivered under the terms of temporary importation continues to be illegally held by the Slovak Party and may be transferred to Ukraine.

In our assessment, the above arguments indisputably demonstrate a violation by the Slovak Party not only of its contractual obligations, but also of international export control regulations.

Slovakian government version:

The Slovak Government adopted a decision  on March 17 to provide Ukraine with the already grounded MiG-29 fighter jets that Slovakia no longer uses.

In line with the UN Charter and in view of the close and friendly relations with Ukraine, the Slovak Government, in full conformity with the Constitution, consensually decided in favour of donating said aircraft, hence saving lives of people, the Slovak MoD announced after a cabinet meeting. 

Within the framework of inter-governmental non-military agreement between Slovakia and Ukraine, the 13 of our MiG-29 fighter jets will be sent to Ukraine. In addition, the aid package will consist of 2 launchers of the KUB Anti-Aircraft Missile System, a control system and pertinent spare parts and missiles.

However, there was no mention of the agreement with the Russian Federation.