Ukraine will soon receive a new batch of military aid, this time from North Macedonia, President Vladimir Zelensky’s aide Mikhail Podoliak confirmed on Saturday. According to Macedonian media, the planes that Skopje allegedly intends to donate to Kyiv were purchased from Ukraine in the early 2000s.
Saturday, Podoliak rented North Macedonia on Twitter for “give Ukraine a [supportive] shoulder in the form of tanks and planes. He also said that Skopje was demonstrating “more courage today than half of the G20.”
Earlier, videos circulating on social media showed battle tanks being loaded onto trucks being moved along a road somewhere in North Macedonia. According to local media, the Ministry of Defense confirmed in late July that the videos were genuine and did show the tanks that North Macedonia was seeking to “donate” to Ukraine. The tanks were previously used in an army battalion which was about to be disbanded, the ministry said, adding that the pieces of heavy equipment were “non-competitive” and could not meet the nation’s defense needs anyway.
According to media reports, the tanks are Soviet-made T-72s that Skopje obtained from Russia in 2000 during an internal conflict with local separatist groups. It’s unclear how many tanks he plans to donate to Kyiv, but the Balkan nation had a total of 31.
#Ukraine: North Macedonia 🇲🇰 has decided to donate its tanks to Ukraine – this has been confirmed by the country’s Ministry of Defense. Macedonia has about 30 T-72A tanks, of which at least 8 are currently transported to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/VhEHoff6gw
— 🇺🇦 Ukrainian Weapon Tracking (@UAWeapons) July 29, 2022
The Russian Foreign Ministry called Skopje’s decision a “big mistake” end of July. Skopje responded by saying that North Macedonia is a member of “the most powerful military-political alliance: NATO”, adding that he “resolutely” supports the position of the US-led bloc.
On Thursday, North Macedonia’s MKD news outlet also reported that Skopje plans to hand over four Soviet-made Su-25 military jets to Kyiv. The Ministry of Defense neither confirmed nor denied this, but said the details of the decisions on military aid to Ukraine would be “declassified and released transparently” later.
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According to MKD, the planes were actually purchased from kyiv in 2001. North Macedonia reportedly sought to sell them in 2004 to another country, but apparently failed to do so. In 2011, he planned to upgrade the four fighter jets to bring them up to NATO standards, but that didn’t happen either.
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