Local media has claimed that the warplanes were originally bought from Kiev.
Ukraine will receive a new batch of military aid, this time from North Macedonia, President Vladimir Zelensky's aide Mikhail Podoliak, confirmed on Saturday. According to Macedonian media, the planes Skopje allegedly plans to give Kiev were bought from Ukraine in the early 2000s.
On Saturday, Podoliak applauded North Macedonia on Twitter for giving Ukraine a supportive shoulder in the form of tanks and planes. He said Skopje is showing more courage than half of the G 20. Videos that appeared on social media showed battle tanks loaded on trucks being moved along a road somewhere in North Macedonia. The Defense Ministry confirmed in late July that the videos were authentic and that the tanks North Macedonia wanted to donate to Ukraine. The tanks were previously used in an army battalion that was about to be disbanded, the ministry said, adding that the heavy equipment pieces were uncompetitive and could not meet the nation's defense needs anyway.
According to the media, the tanks are Soviet-made T-72 s that Skopje obtained from Russia in 2000 during an internal conflict with local separatist groups. It is not known how many tanks it plans to give Kiev, but the Balkan nation has 31.
In late July the Russian Foreign Ministry called Skopje's decision a big mistake. Skopje said that the most powerful military-political alliance, NATO, is a member of the most powerful military-political alliance, and that it resolutely supports the position of the US-led bloc.
North Macedonia s MKD news media outlet reported on Thursday that Skopje plans to hand over four Soviet-made Su-25 military aircraft to Kiev. The Defense Ministry has not confirmed nor denied this, but it said details of military aid for Ukraine would be declassified and transparently published later.
The planes were purchased from Kiev in 2001, according to MKD. North Macedonia tried to sell them to another nation in 2004 but didn't do so. In 2011 it planned to modernize the four warplanes to meet NATO standards, but this didn't happen.