Russia plans to rent naval pilot training facilities in Ukraine

Nitka Naval Pilot Training Center in Ukraine
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov formally asked on Wednesday his Ukrainian counterpart Mykhailo Yezhel to rent facilities on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula for naval pilot training.

In line with a 1997 bilateral agreement, Russia occasionally uses the Nitka Naval Pilot Training Center in Ukraine as the only training facility for its naval pilots.

"I have signed a request to the Ukrainian defense minister to allow us the [permanent] use of the Nitka facility for naval pilot training in the form of a rental or some other agreement," Serdyukov said a meeting of the Council of CIS Defense Ministers at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

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