Russia will pay in cash for using NITKA firing range - Ukraine's decision
KYIV. Aug 17 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Cabinet has empowered Defense Minister Dmitro Solomatin to sign a protocol amending the intergovernmental agreement with Russia on the use of NITKA takeoff and landing system test site.
The press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry says relevant orders were adopted at a Wednesday session of the cabinet.
"The enforcement of the protocol will permit a transition to settlements for the use of the facility in a fixed sum of cash instead of the delivery of spare parts and also extend the list of aviation equipment used for conducting tests and also using the facility of other countries, not only the Russian Federation," the newsletter says.
Thus the signing of the protocol will generate new revenues to the Ukrainian national budget for the use of the testing facility by other states and improve its legal groundwork in defense cooperation.
The Defense Ministry recalled that the existing edition of the framework agreement implies that the Russian side pays for the use of the facility by delivering spare parts to Sukhoi aircraft o a sum equivalent to the expenses of the Ukrainian side.
Under the framework agreement only Sukhoi aircraft can be tested at NITKA making it impossible to offer services to aircraft from third countries.
Earlier Russia requested the lease of NITKA. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the option was possible, if approved by the top leadership of the country.
NITKA is a ground testing and training aviation complex commissioned in 1982. It is located at Saki airfield in Crimea and is meant for training aircraft takeoff and landing on an aircraft-carrier.
Russia has been using it under an intergovernmental agreement signed on February 7, 1997, which Ukraine ratified in 2004.
