Twelve Croatian Air Force MiG-21s stuck in Ukraine following Russian invasion

The Russian invasion of Crimea has found some Croatian MiGs in Odessa.

According to Croatian media outlets, 12 Croatian Air Force MiG-21 that were sent in Ukraine to undertake maintenance activity are currently stuck in Odessa: indeed, the Russian invasion of Crimea has forced a stand down on all non-civil aircraft, including the Migs being overhauled at Ukraine’s SE Odessa Aircraft Plant.

Croatian Government has often sent its aircraft to Ukraine for repairs: overhaul facilities in Sevastopol and at Motor Sich in Zaporozhye were selected in 2012 to support the overhaul of six Mil Mi-8/17 helicopters.

Image credit: Wiki

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

5 Comments

  1. Croatia is a different country than Poland. Poland has a pretty impressive air force with Mig-29’s (many from former East Germany) and F-16’s.

  2. Dear Anonymous, I’m afraid your information is not correct in any respect – neither does the Polish Air Force buy any MiG-21s, nor does it possess any in active service, if it possess any MiG-21 then they are only for sale by means of the AMW, which is not the case as you can check here – http://www.amw.com.pl/pl/a/sprzedaz-samolotow. The Polish MiG-21 were completely retired in 2003 and currently their duties are taken over by F-16C and D block 52+. Additionally Poland has a fleet of Su-22, which it acquired before 1990. There fleet of MiG-29 is of different composition as a part of them was bought before 1990, another airframes were acquired from the Czech Republic in exchange for Polish W-3 Sokól helicopters and last-but-not least some were transferred from the Federal German Luftwaffe (which took tehm over from the GDR) after they decided to replace them with Eurofighters after some years of intensive use. Thus the Polish AF is the biggest MiG-29 user in Europe and they are currently modernized and overhauled as if to a zero-time status. At present the Polish AF was buying the newest F-16 produced by now (block 52+), completely new Finmeccanica M-346 jet trainers and is in search of some elder F-16 versions to extend its fleet – I guess 3rd World countires would have difficulties to manage this.

  3. Wrong.

    Plus the term “Third World Country” is really used out of context here.
    Poland is most definitely not a “Third World Country”, although you might be surprised to find that it could well be on the same level as a “Third World Country”.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_world_countries
    By the above definition, Poland was a “Second World Country” but now is a “First World Country”.

    Learning is fun!

  4. “The Russian invasion of Crimea…. ” Stop drink the NATO propoganda koolaid
    would be nice to 8-) The referendum in Crimea to rejoin Russia is a model of
    legality compared to elections in places like the USA.

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