Defence Ministry to Take Legal Action over Donation of MiG-29s to Ukraine

Bratislava, June 12 (TASR) - The Defence Ministry has announced that it will take legal action concerning Slovakia's donation of its MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, claiming that the interim government of Eduard Heger had no authority to dispose of the aircraft, as it donated the jets without any existing legal analysis of the move. "After joining the ministry, I had an audit done in professional departments. I tried to find out and learn whether anyone had worked on such a legal analysis and whether it existed at all. No evidence was found," said State Secretary Igor Melicher. In his opinion, the interim government made a major decision in foreign policy by handing over the fighters, which violated the Constitution. The state secretary at the same time addressed a legal analysis that was released by former defence minister Jaroslav Nad in 2023. "It turns out that the ex-minister lied when he relied on a legal analysis to donate the MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine," said Melicher. In March 2023, the interim government of Eduard Heger decided to provide Ukraine with thirteen Slovak MiG-29 fighters 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. Ombudsman Robert Dobrovodsky recently asked for access to the analysis via the Freedom of Information Act, reporting earlier this week that the Defence Ministry couldn't find it. zel/df