Moscow. March 24th. INTERFAX - The Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) of Russia called the transfer of MiG-29 aircraft by Slovakia to Ukraine an unfriendly step and a violation of international obligations.
"We are talking about another gross violation by the Slovak side of its international obligations on the re-export of Russian-made weapons and military equipment," the FSVTS said in a statement.
"We regard these actions of Slovakia as an unfriendly act against the Russian Federation aimed at destroying bilateral relations," the FSVTS said.
So the FSVTS commented on the statement of the Slovak Defense Ministry on the transfer to Ukraine of the first batch of four MiG-29 fighters.
"The agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Slovak Republic on military-technical cooperation of April 29, 1997 states that "each of the Contracting Parties will not, without the written consent of the other Contracting Party, sell or transfer to third countries weapons and military equipment, technical documentation for their production, information and materials received or acquired as a result of bilateral military-technical cooperation," the Russian Federal Customs Service said in a statement.
Earlier, the Slovak Ministry of Defense reported that the first four Slovak MiG-29 fighters are already in Ukraine. It was reported that soon another batch of these aircraft will be relocated to Ukraine.
Earlier it was reported that the transfer of 13 MiG-29 fighters and the Kub air defense system was the subject of an intergovernmental agreement between Slovakia and Ukraine, which was approved by the Slovak government last week.