Updated 5:11 p.m. Moscow Time
PRETORIA (South Africa), September 17 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's defense industry may collapse due to the severing of ties with Russia in the defense sector, but Moscow hopes that bilateral military-technical cooperation could resume, a Kremlin aide said Wednesday.
"Ukraine used to have a very powerful military-industrial complex, which was closely integrated with us. We will certainly overcome this problem [the severing of ties], but what will happen to them...," Vladimir Kozhin, the presidential aide on military-technical cooperation, said on the sidelines of the Africa Aerospace and Defence-2014 arms show in South Africa.
"The most pessimistic scenario could be expected, when most of these [defense] plants will close. they do not have an alternative as they always had just one supplier and customer - Russia," Kozhin stressed.
However, he expressed hope that "the common sense in the Ukrainian crisis" will prevail and "the defense cooperation with Ukrainian partners will resume."
Following the Ukrainian crisis, Russia has been taking measures to replace imports from Ukraine, including in the defense sector. In June, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade introduced a plan aimed to substitute imports of Ukrainian-made components with Russian-made military equipment. According to the ministry's estimates, the Russian defense industry would be able to replace Ukrainian imports completely by 2017.
The Africa Aerospace and Defence-2014 is taking place in the city of Tshwane in South Africa from September 17 to 21. The exhibition is to be attended by 347 exhibitors from 26 countries and see 40,000 trade visitors from 101 states in attendance.
