Pellegrini pointed out that while still prime minister, he gave the order to preserve the combat effectiveness of the then Slovak MiG-29 fighters until the moment when their role was taken over by new American F-16 aircraft.
He also noted that at that time Slovakia did not have any replacement for the transferred fighters. “No other country has acted in such a way that, after transferring its own weapons, it remains completely dependent on the help of its neighbors,” he said.
The Slovak president also said he rejected the then-government coalition's claim that the MiG-29 fighters were “just a pile of scrap metal.” “If that were the case, none of them would be able to fly from Slovakia to Ukraine,” he said.
Pellegrini said that he personally flew the MiG-29, and the aircraft was capable of performing all its tasks.
The President of Slovakia also stated that he refuses to participate in the political disputes that arose recently around their donation.
“However, people in Slovakia have the right to know whether the then government had [бывшего премьер-министра страны Эдуарда] Geger, who ruled without trust in parliament, has the right to donate our MiGs to Ukraine,” he added.
Context
Slovakia along with Poland agreed to provide Ukraine with Soviet-style MiG-29 fighters. March 17, 2023 the government of Slovakia approved supply of 13 MiG-29 combat aircraft to Ukraine. In April, the Slovak Ministry of Defense announced that it had completed the transfer of the promised fighters.
In 2024, Slovak authorities called on law enforcement officials to investigate the former government and Defense Minister Jaroslav Nagy over the transfer of the MiG-29 to Ukraine, Reuters wrote.
In November 2025, the country's prosecutor's office told the Aktuality portal that they did not find any crime in the decisions on the fighters.
