KIEV, April 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine is set to scale down its cooperation with Russia in the military technical sphere, Ukraine’s parliament-appointed First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema told a news conference on Friday.

Ukraine and Russia once had close cooperation ties in the military sphere, Ukraine has “inherited quite alot of enterprises from the former Soviet Union,” he said and admitted that if this cooperation was curtailed, many Ukrainian enterprises might be shut down, which would entail unemployment. Nonetheless, “the decision has already been taken by the prime minister to stop military cooperation with Russia,” Yarema said.

According to Yarema, Ukraine continued to export to Russia dual-use products, such as helicopter engines manufactured by Motor Sich. “These engines are used in Russia in both military helicopters and in civil rotorcraft, and are sold all over the globe,” he noted, adding that Kiev would try to find new markets for its defence-related products, including in eastern countries.