Poland to push for provision of NATO-standard jets to Ukraine - Duda

President Andrzej Duda of Poland said this in an interview with Radio Poland on Thursday, April 6, according to Ukrinform.

"Ukraine must have the jets that will be able to fight and oppose Russian jets and prevent Russia's superiority in the air. As long as we can do it at the expense of the MiG-29, it's good, because Ukraine also owned them and Ukrainian pilots know how to fly them," Duda said.

He added that Poland has a limited number of MiG-29s and they will soon run out. According to him, Poland will also use them in the future, and these fighter jets will remain in Poland until they are needed for missions and are replaced by South Korea's FA-50s.

"As soon as these planes arrive in our country -- and we have ordered 48 of them -- we will be able to gradually hand over [to Ukraine] what is obsolete from NATO's point of view," he said.

When asked about the transfer of the F-16 to Ukraine, Duda said this issue was "complicated."

"From Poland's point of view, first of all, we have relatively few of them. First and foremost, we will be lobbying NATO countries so that Ukraine could balance Russian power in the air, so that it has the necessary basis for this, so that countries that can provide Ukraine with their NATO-standard aircraft could do so," Duda said.