Former minister of defense Vitalie Marinuța said the Ukrainian press reports about Moldova’s refusal to offer Ukraine the six MIG jets that stay at the Mărculești Airport are fake news aimed at involving Moldova in the conflict. Marinuța noted these aircraft are unserviceable and cannot be flown without capital repair works. According to him, Moldova should offer these planes to a state that can invest in their repair, IPN reports.
Ex-defense minister Vitalie Marinuța said the six MIG-29 jets are a Soviet inheritance that turned into museum exhibits and cannot be used without considerable investments in their rehabilitation.
“In 2009, the MIG aircraft were no longer a military weapon. They were turned by the Communist regime into civil aircraft and the military equipment was removed from them. They no longer belonged to the National Army and were transferred to the Mărculești International Airport. In 1999, when a number of aircraft were sold, the MIG planes underwent capital repair works in Belarus and could be used in 1999-2000. Now they cannot be used,” Vitalie Marinuța stated in the talk show “Ghețu Asks” on TV8 channel.
He said he does not believe the reports that the Ukrainian authorities asked Chisinau to sell the six MIG jets to Ukraine, but Moldova refused. Marinuța noted that the Ukrainian side knows that the aircraft are in a deplorable state.
“The Republic of Moldova should do something to get rid of these six museum exhibits. One of the solutions is to transfer them to the U.S., Germany or another NATO country that can repair them so that we remain a neutral state, but fulfill the duties that are probably expected by the international community of us. In the 1990s, a MIG jet cost 10 million, but now no one will pay such a sum for all the six MIGs aircraft. As to the Ukrainian press reports, these are fake news and propaganda aimed at attracting a party into the conflict. But I’m sure that the Ukrainian side didn’t ask these MIG planes as they know very well in what state these aircraft are,” said Marinuța.
On Monday, Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița said the Republic of Moldova has stood by Ukraine and its citizens since the very first day of the war by accepting a large number of Ukrainian refugees and by enforcing all the financial-banking sanctions in Moldova. She noted there are much better equipped countries that can offer Ukraine military assistance.
