North Macedonia Donates 4 Su-25 Jets to Ukraine it Bought from Kyiv in 2001

Ukraine has reportedly received four Su-25 fighters it had sold to North Macedonia in 2001 during the armed conflict between the Macedonian authorities and Albanian rebels.

The information was revealed by Macedonia’s MKD.mk. The country’s defense ministry has not confirmed or denied this.

During the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) militant group, formed from veterans of the Kosovo War and Insurgency in the Preševo Valley, attacked Macedonian security forces. It ended with the Ohrid Agreement, signed on 13 August of that same year. 

North Macedonia had then purchased four Su-25 aircraft for €4 million from Ukraine: three single-seat and one two-seat. Two years later, the jets were decommissioned from the armed forces due to lack of need, and in 2004 were prepared for sale. The defense ministry announced plans to modernize these aircraft to NATO standards in 2011, but the project did not see the light of day.

The country also wants to deliver T-72 tanks to Ukraine. Spokeswoman of the Russian MFA Maria Zakharova said Russia considers this decision “a big mistake.”

Skopje government in April also expelled six Russian diplomats.

"The authorities of North Macedonia are still on the path of the West following the Russophobia sentiments, destroying a spiral of bilateral relations," Zakharova had said in a statement. "Another unmotivated provocation against our diplomats on behalf of our colleagues will certainly entail negative consequences in regard to relations between Russia and North Macedonia.”