Slovakia will send its 13-strong fleet of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, becoming the second Nato member behind Poland to answer president Volodymyr Zelensky’s pleas for planes to help Kyiv repel Russia’s invasion.
Prime minister Eduard Heger announced his government’s unanimous decision on Friday to send the grounded fleet of Soviet-era jets, just hours after Poland’s Andrzej Duda declared plans to send four jets within days, with more to follow.
The Kremlin retorted on Friday that the fighter jets would be destroyed and would not make a difference to the course of the conflict.
It came as Moscow announced that China’s president Xi Jinping has accepted an invitation by Vladimir Putin to conduct a state visit to Russia on Monday.
China and Russia struck a “no limits” partnership in February 2022, just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, and Beijing has recently offered to broker peace in the war.
Meanwhile, Russia was likely trying to recover debris from the US surveillance drone it allegedly intercepted over the Black Sea, according to the Pentagon.
