On 24 March, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated in front of the country’s parliament that he saw no contradictions between his comments about why Armenia did not purchase missiles for Russian SU-30 fighter jets to be able to use them in the Second Karabakh War.
“SU-30 fighters arrived in Armenia in May 2020 and yes, they implemented exercise flights and used the missiles Armenia had in its arsenal,” he said, adding that the decision to apply them or not was made assessing the opportunity of fulfilling their task with the existing ammunition. “Unfortunately during the war the government failed to acquire all the necessary accessories, missiles that would have given the opportunity to apply SU-30 new generation weapons at its full power,” he added. He also noted that his statements made during the visit to Aragatstotn province regarding this issue did not contradict each other.
It should be noted that in July last year, Pashinian wrote on Facebook that the Su-30SMs “successfully tested missiles.” Opposition members accused him of lying to the public with “contradictory statements.” Pashinyan explained that since “fighter aircraft are ultra-modern powerful weapons…, it is obvious that manufacturers of aircraft and missiles of different modifications are not the same entities.” However, Pashinyan did not explain the discrepancy between the December 2019 press statement from his office showing photographs of him and former Defence Minister David Tonoyan at an airfield watching demonstration flights of Su-30SM fighters and boarding the cockpit of one of the aircraft, and his statement that the Su-30SM fighter jets arrived in Armenia in May 2020. Opposition Bright Armenia lawmaker Ani Samsonian seized upon that, accusing Pashinyan of lying again.
On 22 July 2019, the Armenian Defence Minister Davit Tonoyan confirmed that the Armenian army purchased four Su-30SM fighter jets from Russia and were expected to arrive at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 (Caucasus Watch reported).
