Ukraine announces withdrawal from agreement with Russia on joint space exploration

The agreement between the governments of Ukraine and Russia on cooperation in the field of exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes has been terminated, informed Representative of the Government of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnichuk.

“The Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the field of exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, concluded on August 27, 1996, has been terminated,” Melnichuk wrote in his Telegram channel.

In 2015, Roscosmos suspended participation in the Russian-Ukrainian project “Dnepr” for the use of strategic missiles RS-20 to launch spacecraft. In 2012, former head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin declaredthat the Russian Federation and Ukraine will jointly use the system “Glonass”, which is spelled out in the program of cooperation between the two countries in the space sector for 2012-2016. The program provided for the further use of launch vehicles “Zenith“, system sharing “Glonass» to create a single navigational-temporal space of Russia and Ukraine, as well as to conduct a number of experiments on the ISS for the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.