ST. PETERSBURG, April 1. /TASS/. A contract for the repair of Russia’s heavy aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov will be signed in April this year, a source in the domestic defense sector told TASS on Sunday.

"All the necessary instructions have been given. But, as the process of signing the contract has quite a significant financial component, we expect to have a concrete document in April. The work was started last year, in October. It involved detecting faults, specifying the work volume and carrying out preparatory works," the source said.

The cruiser will emerge after repairs "much earlier than it was planned," the source added.

A source in the Russian defense industry earlier told TASS that the contract for the repair of the heavy aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov was intended for three years and would be signed between Russia’s Defense Ministry and the United Shipbuilding Corporation in the first quarter of 2018.