{"id":1423964,"date":"2026-08-02T18:05:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/a-loud-scandal-broke-out-in-bulgaria-over-polish-mig-29s-promised-to-ukraine-details\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T18:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:05:59","slug":"a-loud-scandal-broke-out-in-bulgaria-over-polish-mig-29s-promised-to-ukraine-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/a-loud-scandal-broke-out-in-bulgaria-over-polish-mig-29s-promised-to-ukraine-details\/","title":{"rendered":"A loud scandal broke out in Bulgaria over Polish MiG-29s promised to Ukraine: details"},"content":{"rendered":"

A political row has erupted in Bulgaria after the Defense Ministry announced it was seeking MiG-29 aircraft for spare parts. Opposition members have called for the country to abandon Soviet-era aircraft and continue modernizing its air force with Western fighters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is reported by OBOZ.UA.<\/a><\/p>\n

Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said the agency is looking for spare parts for MiG-29 fighters and is also exploring the possibility of purchasing used F-16 or JAS 39 Gripen aircraft. He said that requests have already been sent to Poland, Hungary and several other countries.<\/p>\n

“We have enough aircraft, but we need spare parts. That’s all we want, nothing more. Letters have also been sent to the US Department of Defense and Sweden regarding used F-16 and JAS 39 Gripen aircraft,” said Dimitar Stoyanov.<\/p>\n

The minister noted that Bulgaria does not plan to purchase MiG-29s for combat use or to create a new squadron, but considers them solely as a source of spare parts. He also reported that on July 24 he had contacted his Polish and Hungarian counterparts with a request regarding the future fate of their MiG-29s and the possibility of obtaining components.<\/p>\n

According to Stoyanov, the F-16s delivered to Bulgaria cannot yet perform combat duty due to insufficient training of the flight crew.<\/p>\n

“Pilots need 160 hours of training, of which 40 hours are in a simulator and 120 hours of flight,” the minister explained. He added that under current conditions, the F-16s will not be able to be on combat duty for another 5 years.<\/p>\n

The minister’s statements sparked criticism in parliament. Democratic Bulgaria MP Ivaylo Mirchev said: “Bulgaria should buy modern NATO aircraft, not MiG-29s.” He stressed that the country should rearm with Western equipment, not return to Soviet aircraft.<\/p>\n

As a sign of protest, the youth wing of the “Yes, Bulgaria” party parked a Moskvich car near the Ministry of Defense.<\/p>\n

“Instead of turning Bulgaria into a Porsche, he is turning the country and the Bulgarian Armed Forces into a Moskvich,” said the organization’s representative Todor Petrov.<\/p>\n

Radoslav Rybarsky, a deputy from the “Continue Changes” party, also spoke out against the restoration of old military equipment.<\/p>\n

“We support the real modernization of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. This has been the main goal of the last 5 years and has received unanimous support from the parliament. I hope the Ministry of Defense will not get carried away with such exotic ideas, as they will cost more money and may endanger the lives of Bulgarian servicemen,” he said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, GERB-SDS MP Hristo Gadzhev said that the Bulgarian MiG-29s may remain in service until 2029, and the Su-25s are planned to be decommissioned in 2027. According to him, over the past 10 years, the Bulgarian MiG-29s have been serviced in Poland, so there were no problems with the provision of spare parts.<\/p>\n

We would like to remind you that Poland has not yet made a final decision on the transfer of MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine<\/a> . At the same time, Warsaw does not rule out such a possibility, but is considering it only in the format of an exchange.<\/p>\n

As reported, Poland does not plan to transfer MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine,<\/a> as Kyiv allegedly failed to fulfill agreements on cooperation in the field of unmanned technologies.<\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , X<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A political row has erupted in Bulgaria after the Defense Ministry announced it was seeking MiG-29 aircraft for spare parts. Opposition members have called for the country to abandon Soviet-era aircraft and continue modernizing its air force with Western fighters. This is reported by OBOZ.UA. Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said the agency is looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1423965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76875,76885],"class_list":["post-1423964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-other-news","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1423965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}