KIEV (Sputnik) — Kiev intends to leave the trilateral Ukraine-Russia-NATO Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) program on the use of An-124 transport planes in the Alliance's interests, the CEO of the Ukrainian aircraft maker Antonov Airlines, Oleksandr Gritsenko, said Wednesday.
"We will participate [in the program] with the Russian company until December 31, and beginning January 1 we will carry out work to operate independently," Gritsenko told journalists.
The SALIS program started in 2006, and involves Ukraine's Antonov Airlines and Russia's Volga-Dnepr Airlines, the world's largest operators of Antonov An-124 planes.