Bulgaria seeking to buy MiG-29s ‘like going to a scrapyard for spare parts for a Moskvich’

The government logic in looking to buy MiG-29s is like the last owner of a Moskvich going around scrap yards looking for spare parts, Ivailo Mirchev, an MP for opposition Democratic Bulgaria, said.

Like the MiG-29, the Moskvich is a Soviet-era product.

Poland’s Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz told Wirtualna Polska on July 27 that Bulgaria intends to buy the MiG-29 aircraft that Warsaw has been negotiating to transfer to Ukraine.

This comes after Bulgaria’s Defence Ministry said on July 23 that here are no negotiations are between Bulgaria and Poland about buying Poland’s decommissioned MiG-29s.

On July 24, Bulgaria’s Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said that he had written to Poland and Hungary about obtaining spare parts from their MiG-29s.

Stoyanov said that after the two countries reply, his ministry would send experts to assess the condition of the aircraft and whether the spare parts were usable.

While Stoyanov spoke only about spare parts, the messages from Poland appear to indicate that it is a matter of whole aircraft.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said that negotiations with Ukraine were continuing, but that country had “less and less time” to resolve the issue.

“They [the MiG-29s] are in such good condition that the Bulgarians want to buy them. If someone is ready to pay for them, it means they are truly valuable,” he said.

Mirchev, likening the interest in the MiG-29s to the owner of the last Moskvich going around car scrap yards for spare parts, said: “Instead of changing cars and learning to drive a modern model, he goes to the car scrap yeard in Poland and Hungary to buy up the last Moskviches, dismantle them and use their parts to strengthen his own for a few more years”.

“But we are not talking about a personal car and personal money here. We are talking about national security and the money of Bulgarian taxpayers,” Mirchev said.

He said that it turns out that the government is actually studying the purchase of the last 14 Polish MiG-29s – aircraft that Poland is decommissioning due to their dwindling resources and lack of prospects for modernisation.

“Poland is moving towards F-35 stealth fighters. Romania bought 32 used F-16s from Norway. However, the Bulgarian government is circling the remnants of the Warsaw Pact and looking for more MiGs, provoking ironic reactions from partners and turning us into Nato’s scum,” Mirchev said.

He said that more than 44 million euro had been earmarked for the operation of the Bulgarian MiG-29s in 2026 alone.

“To these can now be added an unknown price for the Polish aircraft, transport, technical assessment, spare parts, repairs and certification. How much exactly this new operation to extend the life of the Soviet aviation relic will cost is not clear,” Mirchev said.

“Bulgaria must be protected and it is clear that the transition to the F-16 cannot happen overnight. But that is precisely why a responsible country should have had a real transition plan long ago – to use one of the many options for used F-16s that we have had over the years,” he said.

Mirchev said that there is an “even more absurd” side.

Ukraine has the technical capacity and experience in repairing the MiG-29.

In 2022, there was even talk of the Lutsk Motor Plant carrying out the main part of the repair of six Bulgarian engines, Mirchev said.

“The humiliation is ahead: to try to take Polish MiGs from under the nose of the under-attack Ukraine, and then ask the Ukrainians to help us repair ours. And perhaps that is exactly what we should do – to ask Ukraine to modernise our existing MiG-29s”

Mirchev said tha the government should immediately publish the letters sent to Poland and Hungary, say exactly what it requested, how many aircraft or parts it intends to acquire, what the estimated total cost is, and why, instead of an accelerated transition to Western equipment, it continues to pour money into the Soviet aviation ecosystem.

“Bulgarian pilots deserve modern aircraft, armament and training, not the state financing the nostalgia of a generation of senior military personnel. The MiG-29 has a worthy place in the history of Bulgarian military aviation. But history should be respected, not endlessly repaired,” Mirchev said.

Mirchev’s criticism follows former defence minister Todor Tagarev saying on July 27 that instead of introducing its brand-new F-16s and using its limited resources to invest in anti-drone defence systems, Bulgaria’s Ministry of Defence continues to look at aging equipment.

Bulgaria has taken delivery of eight US-made F-16s and is to receive eight more, but the Bulgarian Air Force continues to use the MiG-29 for air policing, and says that the F-16s will come into active service only in 2028.

(Photos: OMMMA_2011_Impressionen, Torsten Maue, and archive)