Volunteers of the Ukraine-based charity fund "Aviatsiya Halychyny" say it is possible to buy military aircraft via the international arms market procedures. That's why they launched a campaign called "Buy me a fighter jet" though they claim that it was Ukraine's Air Force pilots to take the initiative.
"It seems impossible to raise funds for an aircraft. In fact, it’s not true. One new MiG-29 aircraft costs about $20 million. However, there are many Su and MiG aircraft in the world that are not used for the purpose intended, and the owners of these aircraft are willing to sell them at lower prices," written on the charity's website.
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The charity is aimed first of all at wealthy world business leaders who support Ukraine. The idea is to buy the aircraft as a "third party" and then issue an "end-user certificate" to hand the jets over to Ukraine.
“It is very simple. Let’s assume you are Elon Musk or Bill Gates. So many people like them are discussing how to get to Mars and live there. However, there is still a lot to do on this planet,” said Yurko Nazaruk, one of the project initiators on April 20 at the Ukraine Media Center.
The prioritized aircraft is basically Soviet-era Su-24, Su-25, Su-27 and MiG-29 fighter jets. Maintenance of modern American F-15 and Swedish JAS 39 would be far too expensive. Besides, Ukrainian pilots already have a lot of experience operating older ones. Although the Ukrainian military authorities argue that lack of experience in cutting-edge aircraft is not a problem for the pilots.
As Defense Express previously reported, Ukraine struggles to deal with Russian air supremacy and lacks combat aircraft. For quite a long time the no-fly zone question was essential for the Ukrainian air defense.
After NATO rejected the appeals in an attempt to avoid further escalation of conflict with Russia, Ukraine turned to the world's countries for aircraft but it had very little success so far. Poland was considering the provision of their MiG-29 jets for once, Slovakia too, yet no actual result as of now.
Thus, Ukrainian pilots turned to international companies and the world's most influential businesspeople to provide the crucial aircraft for the Ukrainian Air Force, which may prove to be a more effective way than negotiations with politicians.
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