Ombudsman: Defence Ministry Can't Find Legal Analysis Concerning Donated MiG-29s

Bratislava, June 11 (TASR) - The Defence Ministry has failed to find a certain legal analysis concerning the possibility of donating Slovak MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine by the previous government, ombudsman Robert Dobrovodsky has told TASR. The ombudsman previously asked for access to the analysis via the Freedom of Information Act. "The ministry recently told me that it was trying to comply with the request and find the analysis. However, it said that neither it nor any of its branches had the analysis at their disposal. It also stated that the analysis isn't even registered in its databases in any form," he explained. In March 2023, the interim government of Eduard Heger decided to provide Ukraine with thirteen Slovak MiG-29 fighter jets and part of the Kub air-defence system. A number of politicians and lawyers argued that the interim cabinet didn't have the authority to donate the MiGs, as they considered the donation to be a serious foreign policy issue. Then-defence minister Jaroslav Nad published a legal analysis of the Defense Ministry that allegedly served as one of the opinions on which it based its decision-making on Facebook in May 2023. zel/df