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Russia to snap defence ties with Ukraine

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: Russia will halt all defence cooperation with Ukraine if the latter joins NATO, the Russian Parliament Speaker said.

"We do not welcome (Ukraine's NATO bid)... If Ukraine joins NATO, we will definitely have to stop all military-technical cooperation with it," Chairman of the Federation Council upper chamber Sergei Mironov said at a press conference in Moscow. He warned that Ukraine would lose thousands of jobs in the defence industry.

Kiev said last month it expects a green light to join the NATO alliance in 2008. Speaking after a meeting with the NATO Foreign Ministers in Bulgaria, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk said he hoped NATO would launch a "membership action plan" with Ukraine in September this year as the first step in Kiev's drive to join the Alliance.

Russia has already started scaling down defence cooperation with Ukraine, announcing plans to stop buying engines for combat and transport helicopters of the Mi and Ka series, as well as naval gas turbines. This hardware will now be manufactured in Russia.

Moscow also decided to withdraw from a bilateral programme with Ukraine for the construction of the AN-70 transport aircraft.

Russia's Air Chief General Vladimir Mikhailov said the Russian Air Force was pulling out the programme in favour of a joint project with India for building a tactical transport aircraft under a 2001 accord between Irkut and HAL.

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