KIEV, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine will launch its own communications satellite in 2011 despite the current political crisis in the country, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Wednesday.

The satellite, dubbed Lybid, is being developed by the Yuzhnoye design bureau to be launched on the Zenit-3 LV carrier rocket. The development has been slow due to the shortage of funding.

"I think everything will turn out fine with politics in Ukraine, and we will be able to bring this project to a logical conclusion by September 2011," Tymoshenko told a Cabinet meeting.

The National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU) earlier said the Lybid project would be financed by the Canadian MDA company.

NSAU is expecting to receive a $254 million loan from MDA in April 2010.

The former Soviet republic has been conducting space activities since 1993, and became a space power (country able to launch own satellite by own carrier rocket) in 31 August 1995 with the launch of the Sich-1 Earth remote-sensing satellite on a Tsyklon delivery vehicle.

The launch of a geostationary telecoms satellite is important for Ukraine to provide reliable coverage of the Euro 2012 football championships, which Ukraine will co-host together with Poland.