Poland says Ukraine has come back with a fresh offer to trade its retiring MiG-29 fighter jets for Ukrainian drones, though the entire account so far rests on Warsaw's word. The exchange has been announced, abandoned, and revived several times over the past year.
Ukraine still leans on its worn Soviet-era MiG-29s for air defense and strikes while it shifts to a mixed Western fleet of F-16s, Mirages, and incoming Gripens. Warsaw's 2023 handover of MiG-29s helped Kyiv replace jets lost in combat and keep its aging fighters flying with Western missiles and bombs.
Warsaw's latest version of events
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said Ukraine returned to negotiations and sent Poland a concrete proposal naming which drones it would hand over, according to PAP. She spoke on Radio Zet on 30 July. The document, she said, has sat with the ministry for several days.
Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz will decide once his officials study it, and Sobkowiak-Czarnecka expects the matter to close within a few weeks at most.
"We send the MiGs, the Ukrainian side hands over drones. That is the offer on the table today," she said.
The jets are Soviet-era, flown by Poland since the late 1980s and leaving service as F-35s and FA-50s replace them. Poland already sent Ukraine more than a dozen MiG-29s after the 2022 invasion. Ukrainian pilots fly the type and have adapted their jets to carry Western precision weapons.
Poland to scrap the MiG-29 fighter jets it was supposed to hand Ukraine amid growing tensions between the allies
The repair demand dropped
Earlier, Poland said Kyiv had pressed it to pay for overhauling the aging jets. Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said that demand is now gone and the arrangement is a straight swap. Poland remains ready to help modernize the aircraft if Ukraine asks, she said, but the cost would fall on Ukraine or on allied states willing to cover it.
Bulgaria also wants them, Poland says
Asked why Poland does not sell the jets to Bulgaria, which had shown interest, Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said Warsaw pursued the exchange with Ukraine first. Days earlier, another deputy minister said Poland had received a fresh request from an unnamed NATO country asking for the same fighters.
A deal that keeps dying and coming back
Poland first floated handing over six to eight retiring MiG-29s in December 2025. In January, Warsaw planned a February transfer, and days later the government approved up to nine jets.
Then it fell apart. In late June, Kosiniak-Kamysz refused to send them, accusing Kyiv of walking away from the drone-technology side of the bargain. In early July, Warsaw said it would scrap the jets instead. The minister soon said the question stayed open, and by 10 July the sides had restarted talks.
