Polish President Andrzej Duda announced Thursday that his country will deliver the first batch of four MiG-29 fighter-bombers to Ukraine, marking the first such delivery by a NATO member.

"In the first stage, we will transfer in the coming days... four fully operational planes to Ukraine," Duda told reporters.

Kiev has asked several times from its Western allies to deliver modern fighter-bombers in the hope of obtaining American F-16 fighters.

However, shortly after that, the White House confirmed that Poland's decision "does not change" the US position opposing sending US-made planes to Kiev.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Poland's decision "does not change our calculations regarding the US-made F-16s," adding that the Polish move "does not affect or change" that.

In response to the Polish announcement, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yury Ignat said, "MiG fighters will not solve problems, we need F-16 fighters. But MiGs will contribute to strengthening our capabilities."

Russia did not immediately comment on the Polish declaration, but the Kremlin has said several times that the delivery of Western weapons to Kiev will only prolong the conflict and the "suffering" of the civilian population without changing Moscow's "military objectives" in Ukraine.

During his press conference, the Polish president added, "Additional aircraft are currently being prepared and maintained, and they are likely to be transferred successively."

"Therefore, we can say that we are about to send these MiGs to Ukraine," he said, noting that Poland currently has more than ten MiGs inherited from the former German Democratic Republic.

"These MiGs are still in service with the Polish Air Force. They are in their last years of operation, but the majority of them are still fully operational," Duda said.

He added that the MiG-29 fighters are "planes that Ukrainian pilots can use today without additional training."

On Thursday morning, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that Poland wants to transfer MiG-29s to Ukraine "within the framework of a larger coalition of countries."

In response to a question about the member states of this alliance, Blaszczak referred to Slovakia, but added, "Of course we are open to others."

"We definitely want to run our business in the framework of an alliance," he said.

The MiGs, which will be transferred to Ukraine, will be replaced by the South Korean F-50, which Poland bought, and then by the American F-35.

Last year, Poland's neighbor Slovakia announced that it wanted to discuss sending MiG-29s to help replace losses in Ukraine's existing stockpiles. However, no final decisions have been made in this regard since then.

Duda's announcement came after talks with his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel, who was a general in NATO, in Poland.

Likewise, the Polish president's statements came after the defense minister announced earlier that Polish intelligence had dismantled a Russian spy network.

Blaszczak told Polish public radio that it was a "spy group... gathering information for those who attacked Ukraine".