Croatian military sues the Ukrainian government over 'fake' Mig-21 deal.

The Croatian Ministry of Defense demanded that Ukraine replace the poorly repaired MiG-21 aircraft with new fighters. According to the newspaper Jutarnji list, citing an informed source in the defense ministry, it is about replacing a minimum of four aircraft. The scandal with the "fake" MiGs flared up in Croatia in 2016, when it turned out that most of the 12 Ukrainian planes repaired by Ukrspetsexport were unsuitable for flights.

It is reported that last week the Croatian Defense Ministry sent a relevant official note to Ukraine. Zagreb demanded that Ukraine provide new aircraft in return for poorly repaired in 2014. The contract for the repair of aircraft and the purchase of second-hand fighters suggested that the fighters would last another 10 years - until 2023, but after a couple of years, the Croatian Air Force found the planes unsuitable for flights: oil leaked, fuel tanks leaked, and on-board navigation systems failed. One of the last flights miraculously did not end with the death of the crew - despite the failure of the equipment, Croatian pilots were able to land the plane. Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak , who visited Zagreb recently, admitted during the visit that the agreement was "not completely fulfilled" with "damage to the Croatian side."

"This request is an official confirmation of the catastrophic repair of Croatian military aircraft in Ukraine, for which 132.9 million kunas ($ 22 million) was paid, as well as evidence of criminal acts committed by the Ukrainian enterprise, creating a threat to the lives of Croatian pilots, and also destroying the combat readiness of a member country of NATO, "the newspaper wrote.

The publication reports that five aircraft turned out to be old units, which were in service with the Bulgarian Air Force until 1998. "Ukrspetsexport" bought them for spare parts, and then altered the serial numbers on the airframes, repainted them and sold them under the guise of "deeply modernized equipment." It also turned out that after the five MiG-21s were written off, Bulgaria officially informed NATO of the destruction of the aircraft, and it is not known how they got to Ukraine.

In 2014, the Ukrainian state-owned company Ukrspetsexport repaired seven Croatian MiG-21s, and also sold Zagreb five more such vehicles. 12 aircraft were transferred to the Croatian Air Force in July 2015, however, according to the publication, they immediately began to break down, and eight months later, only three remained in operation. As pointed out by the Jutarnji list, there are serious suspicions that all documentation was fake, and aircraft repair was not carried out at all. The newspaper called this story with "fake" MiGs "the biggest scandal in the history of the Croatian army."

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