Aircraft-Gas Barter Completed

On February 21 Ukraine sent to Russia the two last Tu-160 aircraft out of those Kyiv had agreed to hand over to its eastern neighbor as partial payment for its fuel debts. The planes were received at the Russian air force base in Engels near Saratov. Russia has received from Ukraine a total eleven bombers and 600 cruise missiles, the latter being dispatched to Russia by rail.

In return for the strategic bombers, Russia is to write off $275 million of Ukraine’s debt for natural gas. This could be the end of the aircraft-gas barter story if it did not turn out that Kyiv itself could not figure out precisely who has gained from the deal.

The National Security and Defense Council session held the week before last discussed the situation in this country’s fuel and power complex and voiced criticism about the performance of the Naftohaz Ukrayiny Joint Stock Company. Oddly enough, it now has to be discovered exactly who owes this $275 million and “for whom they should be written off.” This is quite a thin hint that Naftohaz Ukrayiny should not cherish much hope of covering the company’s debts at the expense of aircraft. It is not ruled out that the company will find it rather difficult in future to carry out the military-gas barter with Turkmenistan, another fuel creditor. A list of military equipment was drawn up last year, comprising items to be handed over to Turkmenistan via the Ukrspetseksport Company. However, Naftohaz Ukrayiny is unlikely to remain the chief lobbyist of this affair in the future

PS. The decision to hand over strategic bombers as payment for Ukrainian natural gas debts to Russia was made on October 9, 1999 in Yalta by a mixed Ukrainian- Russian commission. It cost Ukraine an annual $1.5 million to maintain one bomber.

The Tu-160 bomber is designed to hit targets in remote geographical regions and the deep rear of the continental theater of operations with nuclear and conventional weapons. The Tu-160 is armed with strategic cruise missiles and ballistic hypersonic standoff missiles and can also carry up to 40,000 kilograms of free- falling bombs.

Deputy chief armaments engineer of the Russian Air Force, Vladimir Germanovich, noted in a press interview at the Pryluky airfield that the planes being handed over by Ukraine are in good condition. “This is not metal scrap, although it took, of course, some effort to make the machines serviceable because they had not flown for so long,” he said.