Kiev - President Volodymyr Zelensky's aide, Mykhailo Podolyak says Ukraine will soon receive new military assistance, this time from North Macedonia. According to Macedonian media, the planes that Skopje was supposed to deliver to Kiev were purchased from Ukraine in the early 2000s.
Quoted from Russia Today, On Saturday, Podoliak praised North Macedonia on Twitter for providing support to Ukraine in the form of tanks and planes. He also said that Skopje showed more courage today than half of the G20.
Earlier, videos that emerged on social media showed battle tanks loaded on trucks being moved along a road somewhere in North Macedonia. According to local media, the North Macedonian Ministry of Defense confirmed in late July that the video was genuine and did indeed show North Macedonian tanks attempting to be 'donated' to Ukraine.
The tanks were previously used in army battalions that are about to be disbanded," the ministry said, adding that the heavy equipment was "uncompetitive" and could not meet the country's defense needs. According to media, the tanks were Soviet-made T-72s acquired by Skopje from Russia in 2000 during an internal conflict with local separatist groups. It is not clear how many tanks he plans to give to Kiev, but the Balkan countries have a total of 31 tanks.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called Skopje's decision a "grave mistake" in late July. Skopje responded by saying that North Macedonia is a member of the "most powerful military-political alliance: NATO," adding that it "firmly" supports the position of the US-led bloc.
On Thursday, North Macedonian news media outlet MKD also reported that Skopje plans to hand over four Soviet-made Su-25 military aircraft to Kiev. North Macedonia's Ministry of Defense did not confirm or deny this, but said details of the decision related to military assistance to Ukraine would be "confidentially and transparently published" later.
According to MKD, the planes were actually purchased from Kiev in 2001. North Macedonia allegedly attempted to sell them in 2004 to other countries, but apparently failed. In 2011, it was planned to modernize four warplanes to meet NATO standards, but this also did not happen.