Kalinak Announces Criminal Complaint Due to Donation of MiG-29s to Ukraine

Bratislava, June 12 (TASR) - The Defence Ministry will file a criminal motion in connection with the donation of Slovakia's MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) told a press conference on Wednesday following the government meeting. According to Kalinak, former defence minister and incumbent head of the extra-parliamentary Democrats party Jaroslav Nad weakened the armed forces by donating the fighters in violation of the Slovak Constitution. "To weaken the armed forces in this way in violation of the Constitution can't be described differently in our political vocabulary than as treason," said Kalinak, adding that Nad took this step against the will of his then coalition partners. 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 Defence Ministry that allegedly served as one of the opinions on which it based its decision-making on Facebook in May 2023. am/mcs