“I believe, not only me, but also the government, that the government has competence. We will make a decision. I guess in theory it can’t stop anything,” said Naď. He added that a deadline for a cabinet decision on the handover of the fighter jets to Ukraine had not yet been set, but would probably happen as early as Wednesday, when the government scheduled its regular meeting.

According to Nada, Slovakia will receive EUR 900 million (21 billion crowns) in compensation for the MiGs and parts of the Kub missile system that Ukraine will receive. The minister did not provide details.

Slovakia prematurely stopped using 11 Soviet-designed MiGs last year and agreed with the Czech Republic and Poland to help secure its airspace until Bratislava received an order for American F-16 fighter jets. Naď said last week that together with Slovakia, Poland can also contribute its oil and gas to Ukraine. Some of Slovakia’s fighter jets are no longer able to fly, but according to the Slovak Ministry of Defense, Ukraine can repair the engines. The minister added that four countries had handed over fighter jets to Ukraine.

Notably the Social Democrats (Smér-SD) opposition of former prime minister Robert Fico has repeatedly claimed that the handover of the fighter jets was one of the fundamental issues of Slovak foreign policy, which the cabinet could no longer tackle after the vote was not. trust in the lower house, according to the constitution, and no other authority has this authority. Směr-SD has long opposed arms supplies to Ukraine.

Several Slovak politicians have previously mentioned the possibility that parliament will approve a resolution regarding the transfer of MiGs to Ukraine. The head of the strongest government movement Common People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) Igor Matovič, in turn, advocated changing the constitution so that in the end, President Zuzana Čaputová, as commander in chief of the armed forces, would make the final decision regarding MIG. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Boris Kollár, said that the House of Representatives would not change the powers of the government which were dismissed through constitutional amendments. Early elections in the country will be held at the end of September.