ZHOUHAI, November 1. /TASS/. Russia has started acting on the first set of its liabilities under the contract with China for the supply of Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, the deputy chief of the federal service for military-technical cooperation, Vladimir Drozhzhov, has told TASS.

"The delivery of the contracted planes to China is being carried out within the established deadlines. At the moment work is in progress to comply with the first set of contractual liabilities," Drozhzhov said.

The governments of Russia and China, he went on to say, had concluded a special agreement on intellectual property protection matters. Russian equipment installed on these planes will be immune from illegal replication.

"To implement this agreement in practice a Russian-Chinese working group has been set up. Last time it met in session in September 2016," Drozhzhov said.

Russia and China in November 2015 signed a contract for 24 Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets. The value of the contract is estimated at no less than $2 billion. The terms of the agreement include the supplies of ground equipment and spare engines.

A source in the military-technical cooperation system told TASS earlier the contract would be implemented within three years. The governor of the Khabarovsk Territory where the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft-building plant (the manufacturer of Sukhoi-35) is located said earlier a batch of the first four planes would be handed over to China by the end of this year.

The Sukhoi-35 is a multi-role extra-maneuverable fighter jet (generation 4++). It is equipped with a phased array antenna radar and variable thrust engines. It can develop a speed of 2,500 kilometers per hour. The maximum range without refueling is 3,400 kilometers and combat radius, 1,600 kilometers. The fighter is armed with a 30-mm gun and has 12 suspensions for bombs and rockets.