All strategic air transportation in the interests of NATO is performed by Ukrainian heavy aircraft belong to the Antonov company, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yehor Bozhok has said.
“Recently, we have managed to build a high level of trust in NATO. In fact, Ukrainian heavy aircraft of Antonov perform 100% of strategic air transportation in the interests of NATO,” Bozhok said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Bozhok said at one time Ukraine shared this contract with Russia, and Russia’s share in it was much larger. However, the Kremlin’s behavior and the unprecedented aggression unleashed by Moscow against Ukraine changed the situation. He said Russia lost NATO’s trust and faced a situation where such an important area as strategic air transportation could not be left under the aggressor’s control.
“In this context, we started working – I was still in charge of Ukraine’s mission to NATO at the time – to completely replace Ukrainian Russian capabilities in the framework of NATO’s strategic airlift project. And we succeeded. Today, 100% of this traffic is provided by Ukrainian aircraft. That is why you hear and see so much when Ukraine’s Mriya aircraft and Ruslan fly to Canada, Poland, Germany, France, etc. This is a consequence of what we once achieved in our partnership with NATO,” he said.
According to him, if Ukraine had more opportunities in the field of strategic air transport, it could provide greater support to NATO partners. In this regard, measures are being taken to resume construction in Ukraine of not only heavy aircraft, but also medium and small planes.
“So we are now seriously thinking about how we can reform the Antonov state-owned enterprise in order to regain our position in the global aircraft market. The world needs more transport planes, as these services are in demand, and we have serious potential here. “Steps are being taken now to resume construction in Ukraine of not only heavy aircraft, but also medium and small ones. There are some developments with a number of countries. We could start a project with NATO by creating our own heavy transport aircraft,” Bozhok said.
