[chmars]

Romania is a former member of the Warsaw Pact and has therefore still MIGs in service.

[akmarinov]

I thought only Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria have MiGs? Due to that article where they were considering giving them to Ukraine.

[mardifoufs]

I think that's for Mig-29s specifically. To put it lightly, mig-21s are much older and wouldn't exactly be helpful to Ukraine.

[ersoft]

Also, the romanian Mig-21 are converted to NATO specs, the ukrainean are not able to use them without training. Maybe it is the same issue with the Polish/Bulgarian Mig-29.

[jacquesm]

And some conversion lest Russia thinks that NATO planes are in the theater.

[jacquesm]

Which they ended not doing, for reasons unknown.

[nkurz]

Maybe. There's also reporting saying that Poland might still transfer some of their fleet if the details can be figured out: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/is-poland-sending-fighter-...

(I'm not sure of the relative timing of this article and the Polish government's statements)

[mardifoufs]

It seems like Europe announced the plane transfer without enough consultation from the countries who would actually have the planes needed. At least, that's the impression I've gotten from how fast most of them denied any MIG loan to Ukraine after the initial announcement was made

[jacquesm]

Apparently there are a number of technical challenges, mostly related to the pilots not being up to speed with the weapons conversions, ensuring they are not identified as NATO planes and the time required for training. Someone else pointed out that it may also be the case that through channels Russia gave some kind of ultimatum about this, but that is pure speculation.