North Macedonia confirms Su-25 donation to Ukraine

The Minister of Defence of North Macedonia, Slavjanka Petrovska, confirmed during a television interview that the country will donate its four Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot (ground) attack aircraft to Ukraine.

The three single-seat Su-25 and sole two-seater Su-25UB were obtained from Belorussian stocks and arrived from Ukraine on 20 June 2001 to help fighting the Albanian insurgents. Around 2004 all four were were set aside and placed in long-term storage out in the open at Petrovec air base.

It was not reported if the aircraft have been refurbished to flying status of if they will be used for spares only.

Given the long period that the aircraft were stored in the open, it seems plausible that the aircraft will be used for spares. Somewhere in the second half of 2022, the four aircraft dissappeared from their outside storage location.

Scramble Magazine first reported on a possible transfer of the aircraft to Ukraine in August 2022.

Photo by Phil Adkin (via eurodemobbed.org.uk)