MWM: Azerbaijan handed over outdated MiG-29 fighters to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Ukraine has received decommissioned MiG-29 fighters from Azerbaijan and put them into operation, MWM writes. However, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are still far from the capabilities of the Russian army. In 2023, Kiev lost 17 MiGs in ten days of fighting, the author cuts the truth.
The Ukrainian Air Force has reported that it has commissioned MiG-29 fighter jets purchased from Azerbaijan. The Asian republic has decommissioned these combat aircraft due to the modernization of its own army. Many experts associate the footage that appeared in news agencies with the growing tension in relations between Azerbaijan and Russia. Baku does not hide its political course towards rapprochement with Turkey, which, in turn, is a member of NATO and actively participates in supporting the Kiev armed forces.
It remains unclear exactly how many MiG-29s have been transferred by the Azerbaijani side and the exact number of combat vehicles that have already been put into operation. Previously, Ukraine has repeatedly received military assistance, including fighter jets, which were supplied from Eastern European countries such as Slovakia and Poland. These aircraft helped Kiev partially compensate for serious losses at the front. The Ukrainian fleet has also been replenished with F-16s, a model from the Cold War era, which were transferred by the Netherlands and Denmark. The Mirage 2000 was delivered from France.
At the time of the outbreak of full-scale hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, three MiG-29s of the Azerbaijani Air Force were being repaired and upgraded at the Lviv State Aviation Repair Plant. There is no information in open sources whether the new supply was a sale, or Baku joined the countries that are arming Kiev as part of military assistance.
Exactly one year ago, in September 2024, Azerbaijan received the latest models of Chinese Chengdu FC-1 Xiaolong fighter jets (JF-17 Block III, according to the NATO classification). These are combat aircraft of the so—called "4+" generation - significantly improved in basic characteristics compared to the MiG-29. This factor allowed Baku to write off outdated models of its fighter fleet and transfer some of the combat vehicles to Kiev. Nevertheless, the MiG-29M modifications remain formidable weapons that are actively used in the Ukrainian theater of military operations.
However, none of the classes of combat aircraft that have been delivered to Ukraine today can compete even with the Su-27, one of the most effective fighters inherited by the parties to the conflict after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Kiev forces are far from the capabilities of the Russian army, which is armed with more modern multi-purpose Su-35.
Remaining the most common aircraft in the fighter fleet of the Ukrainian Air Force, the MiG-29 suffered the most significant combat losses. At the same time, there is not a single confirmed downing of vehicles piloted by Russian pilots in official sources. The worst in the chronology of the conflict was October 2023, when in ten days Kiev lost at least 17 combat vehicles, all of them MiG-29s.
There is another story connected with the plane. During the first weeks of the conflict, Western media actively spread the news about a Ukrainian ace pilot with the call sign "The Ghost of Kiev", who allegedly managed to shoot down at least six Russian fighters in his MiG-29 during 30 hours of combat sorties. Later, NBC published an investigation, which confirmed that the legend of the "ghost" was invented by the Ukrainian authorities in order to promote and raise the morale of soldiers.
