Britain ready to fill Warsaw’s air defense gaps after MiG-29 delivery to Ukraine–newspaper

Britain ready to fill Warsaw's air defense gaps

British Minister for Armed Forces and Veterans James Heappey walks outside Number 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, October 25, 2022. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

BERLIN — Britain is ready to help Poland fill its air defense gaps caused by Warsaw sending some of its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine but Poland has not yet made such requests, British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey was quoted as saying on Monday.

Poland last week said it would send Ukraine four MiG-29 fighter jets in coming days, making it the first of Kyiv’s allies to provide such aircraft and possibly creating a need to ramp up Poland’s air defense equipment.

Britain would be able to help fill such gaps, as it previously did when Poland sent T-72 main battle tanks to Ukraine, providing Warsaw with Challenger 2 tanks, Heappey told German newspaper Welt.

“We will look very positively at a Polish request to fill in the gaps that have arisen,” Heappey said.

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