Serbia denies reports it could send jets to Ukraine via France

Claims that Serbia has agreed to send its MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine via France are made up and outright lies, President Aleksandar Vucic has said.

Multiple outlets in the Balkans have reported that the recently concluded deal for the purchase of 12 Rafale fighter jets from Paris involved Belgrade trading in 36 of its Russian-made jets, which would then end up in Kiev’s service.

“We have 14 of ‘TwentyNines’ that have been refurbished, upgraded and operational,” Vucic said on Wednesday, while touring a highway construction site in western Serbia.

“To give them to someone? Whoever says so is a liar and completely out of his mind,” he added. “It’s made up.”

Vucic noted that Serbia had no operational MiG-29s at one point and had to stage an air show in 2013 with MiG-21s, which he called “flying coffins.” Six of the jets were donated by Russia in 2017 to replace the losses in the 1999 attack by NATO.

Rumors that Belgrade would send the MiGs to France are “yet another blatant lie,” Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic said on Wednesday. “The MiGs that Serbia owns are Serbian, and we will never give them to anyone.”