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Serbia receives four MiG-29 fighter jets from Belarus - defense minister

Six MiG-29 fighter jets reached Serbia in October 2017

BELGRADE, April 22. /TASS/. Serbia’s army has received four MiG-29 fighter jets from Belarus, Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said in an interview with the Serbian Politika daily on Sunday.

"Under an agreement between Serbian President Alexandar Vucic and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus has given us fighter jets and we are very thankful to it for that," he said, adding that thanks to the supplies of six MiG-29 fighter jets from Russia and four such warplanes from Belarus, Serbia will have a fleet of 14 fighter jets.

The Serbia defense minister said that while visiting Moscow in April he had had talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu on supplies of four Mi-35 combat helicopters, four Mi-17 transport helicopters, T-72 tanks, BMP-2 armored infantry carriers and missile defense systems.

Six MiG-29 fighter jets reached Serbia in October 2017. Now the warplanes are to be modernized in three stages. The country plans to spend a sum from 180 million to 230 million euro for these purposes. Along with MiG-29 fighter jets, Russia’s assistance to Serbia will include 30 T-72 tanks and 30 BRDM-2 combat patrol vehicles. Apart from that, the sides are discussing supplies of Buk-M1 and Buk-M2 missile systems and Tunguska surface-to-air gun and missile systems. Earlier, Belarus announced its plans to hand over to Serbia in 2018 eight MiG-29 fighter jets and two Buk missile systems on condition that Belgrade pays for their repairs.

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