At a meeting on Wednesday, the Government of North Macedonia decided to donate to Ukraine 12 Mi-24 helicopters previously purchased from Ukraine itself, but not currently used, the Focus Macedonian publication said, citing Defense Minister Slavjanka Petrovska.

"The Government considered and adopted the information on the need to conclude a protocol on the gratuitous transfer of aircraft (helicopters) between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and made a decision on the gratuitous transfer of aircraft (helicopters) to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The Government of the Republic of North Macedonia considered and adopted the agreed text of the protocol on the free transfer of aircraft between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine," the government said in a statement.

North Macedonia will transfer Russian-made Mi-24 helicopters to Ukraine, which were purchased in Ukraine in 2001, but their service life ended eight years ago, they are also not used due to lack of spare parts and for other reasons. "Some of them were modernized, but this modernization was adapted to those conditions then [during the purchase by North Macedonia] and absolutely does not correspond to what is needed now, even if we want to talk about the development of technologies," Petrovska said.

At the same time, the head of the defense department said Ukraine has the ability to put these combat helicopters into operation and the Ukrainian army needs them to conduct various operations and combat operations in modern conditions.