Kazakhstan has denied reports about negotiations with Ukraine for the sale of old Russian/Soviet combat aircraft decommissioned by the Astana air force and considered of interest to supply spare parts to the Ukrainian air force. The negotiations were disclosed by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti which cited anonymous sources according to which the Ukrainian state company Ukrspetsexport was negotiating with Kazakhstan for the purchase of components for MiG-29 fighters and front-line Sukhoi Su bombers -24M…
Recently it became known that the Ukrspetsexport group of companies is negotiating with Kazakhstan on the purchase of products of the Russian military-industrial complex for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Kazakh companies involved are TOO Navico, BSKey, TOO IGT and IA Syzdykov T. ” – an interlocutor told the Russian agency.
On March 7, the Kazakh Ministry of Defense denied that negotiations were underway with Ukraine on the purchase of Russian military products to be delivered to Kiev’s armed forces.
Information shared in the media and social networks that allegedly Kazakhstan and Ukrspetsexport are negotiating the purchase of Russian military equipment for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is not true,” the ministry wrote on its Telegram channel. Kazakhstan has banned exports of weapons and military equipment from 2022, the ministry added.
The Kazakh Air Force continued to receive Russian military aircraft with the delivery of 4 Sukhoi Su-30SM in 2022 and other Russian equipment and had placed for sale 117 old fighter aircraft including MiG-31 “Foxhound” interceptor fighters , former bombers Sukhoi Su-24MR line, MiG-27 “Flogger” and MiG-29 “Fulcrum” fighter-bombers.
Defense Analysis dealt with it in November 2023 , underlining that the Kazakh authorities had specified that restoring the flight conditions of the aircraft was defined as prohibitive because it was too expensive.
The starting price for 117 planes amounted to around $1.5 million asked by the state enterprise “Kazarnaulyexport” (Kazspetsexport) of the State Defense Order Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development.
In detail the sale concerned:
– 81 aircraft from the production years 1975-1989 located at the military unit 65229 in the village of Zhetygen, Almaty region, (MiG-29, MiG-27, Su-24MR and Su-24 without engines). The starting price for the entire lot is 1 billion 19 million 782,199 tenge (2 million dollars).
– 11 aircraft for 230.5 million tenge ($495,000) are stored at the 610th air base of the Kazakh Air Defense Force “Nurken Abdirov” in Karaganda ( MiG-31 ),
– 10 units for 358.3 million tenge ($771,000) to Semey (again MiG-31).
– 15 aircraft for 194.8 million tenge ($420,000) in Shymkent (other MiG-29s).
Some Russian military Telegram channels speculated that the final destination of the aircraft could be the Kiev air force (which employs both Mig 29s and Su-24s) through triangulations with third states, but the Kazakh Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development issued a decree last November requiring the disposal of the planes on Kazakh territory.
The conditions of the aircraft are said to be so poor that they cannot even be used for the recovery of spare parts considering that “due to their obsolescence their modernization is not economically feasible” the ministry had specified.
The Kazakh Air Force maintains in service 23 new Sukhoi Su-30SM multi-role fighters , 24 older Sukhoi Su-27s and 14 Sukhoi Su-25 “Frogofoot” attack aircraft .
