BERLIN, April 13. /TASS/. The German Defense Ministry on Thursday confirmed that Berlin allowed Warsaw to transfer to Ukraine five MiG-29 fighter jets that Poland had received from the stockpiles of former East Germany.

"MiG-29 for Ukraine: The federal government has approved the re-export application that was received today from Poland for the delivery of MiG29 to Ukraine," the ministry said on Twitter.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in comments on the approval, "I am pleased to inform you that we give our Polish partners permission to deliver five MiG-29s from the inventory of the former National People’s Army to Ukraine. We received the application as recently as today. I welcome that we in the federal government have reached a decision together."

Der Spiegel broke the news of the transfer approval for the Soviet-made aircraft earlier on Thursday.

Germany gave Poland 23 MiG-29 fighter jets from East Germany inventory in 2002. Poland has said it has about a dozen of the planes at its disposal currently. Poland said earlier this month that it had given some MiG-29 jets to Ukraine.

Ukraine received four MiG-29 jets from Poland. Polish President Andrzej Duda said later that Warsaw was transferring another four MiG-29s to Kiev. In addition, six more of these planes are currently undergoing maintenance and can be provided to Ukraine in the near future.