KIEV, July 17 – Ukraine and Russia are preparing to create a joint venture for the construction of an upgraded version of the An-124-100 Ruslan heavy transport aircraft, Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Boyko said.

Commenting in an interview with Channel 5 on the results of a meeting of the prime ministers of Ukraine and Russia, Mykola Azarov and Dmitry Medvedev, which took place in Sochi last week, the deputy prime minister said that they had reached agreement on creating a joint venture for the production of the An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft, which will be a pilot project for the new model of cooperation, including between the aviation industries of the countries.

"A decision was made to establish a joint venture for the construction of the An-124-100 Ruslan... We were commissioned by the two countries' prime ministers to sign the statutory documents [of the JV] in September at a meeting of the Ukrainian-Russian Committee on Economic Cooperation," the deputy prime minister's press service quoted him as saying on Wednesday.