Slovakia – One of the consequences of the Russian aggression against Ukraine is that most Central European countries have been supplying arms, often Soviet-made, to the Ukrainian army and replacing them with more modern Western equipment. This can certainly be said of Czechia and Poland, and now also of Slovakia.
As announced on 12 December by the Slovak defence ministry’s spokeswoman, Martina Kovaľ Kakaščíková, Slovakia will acquire 152 Swedish CV90 MkIV combat vehicles for a total price of 1.7 billion euros. These tracked combat vehicles will be delivered from 2025 onwards, gradually replacing the already very old Soviet-made BMP-1 and BMP-2 tracked infantry fighting vehicles.
The agreement with BAE Systems AB, whose parent company is British, also provides for industrial cooperation between the Swedish company and the Slovakian public company ZTS Špeciál, and Deputy Defence Minister Marian Majer pointed out that neighbouring Czechia had also chosen to provide its army with the same equipment.
Eleven MiG-29 fighters to be handed over to Ukraine soon
In addition, in an interview with the Ukrainian news agency Interfax, Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Rastislav Káčer spoke about the upcoming handover of eleven MiG-29 fighter jets to the Ukrainian air force: “We have not yet handed over the MiG-29 fighters, but we are ready to do so. We are discussing with our NATO partners on how to do this. (…) I am very optimistic about this, I think that (…) these planes will [soon] be in Ukraine”, the Slovak minister said. These Soviet-made aircraft will be replaced by fourteen U.S.-made F-16 C/D Viper fighters under a 2018 agreement signed with Lockheed Martin.
