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RIA Novosti
September 07, 2005
Ukraine intends to sell new missile cruiser
KIEV, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian government has ordered Ukrspetsexport, the state-owned arms trader, to look for potential buyers for a missile cruiser that is currently being built.
A government order signed on September 5 said the ministries for foreign affairs and industry would assist Ukrspetsexport in the deal.
The defense ministry was instructed to take the Ukraina (the Ukraine), which is a 95% complete but is not equipped with military hardware, and pay for its maintenance.
In June 2002 a former Ukrainian prime minister, Anatoly Kinakh, and Russia's ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin, discussed an acceptable agreement on the missile cruiser, as a Russian-Ukrainian agreement of 1993 stipulated that both parties should make joint decisions on military facilities and equipment that had not been completed in the Soviet era. The cruiser falls under the agreement, as work on it began in 1983.