Poland will not send its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine - and not for lack of goodwill, but because the deal collapsed. Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said plainly that Kyiv never honoured the agreed exchange.

The logic of the deal was a partnership: Poland hands over the MiG-29s, and in return gets Ukrainian drone technology and counter-drone systems. „The Ukrainians agreed at first, but they didn't honour the deal," the minister said. In other words - Kyiv took what it needed and gave nothing back. The bilateral security pact signed in July 2024 called for the transfer of at least 14 aircraft, and deliveries were frozen back in mid-June precisely over this failure to deliver.

Poland insists its current government guards national interests more firmly than its predecessors did. That's a message bigger than one jet contract - even Ukraine's closest allies are starting to draw their own lines and ask for something in return. Solidarity, it seems, comes with an expiry date and a price.

For the region, this is a reminder that there are no free friends in international politics. When a country that yesterday helped unconditionally suddenly starts counting what it gets back, it means the war is entering a phase where everyone is doing their own arithmetic. And when allies start to haggle, it's usually a sign that the long war of attrition has already begun.