Russia expects to reach an agreement with Ukraine on the modernization of its Black Sea Fleet before the end of the year, fleet commander Rear Adm. Alexander Fedotenkov said on Monday.
The agreement should enable Russia to bring in new warships to the naval base it rents in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, Fedotenkov said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that Ukraine had objected to the replacement of the fleet’s obsolete warships with new ones.
Under the 1997 treaty, giving Russia use of the port of Sevastopol, Russia may not increase the number of warships in Crimea or modernize their weapon systems.
In accordance with a 2010 agreement, Russia’s Black Fleet is to stay in Crimea through 2042.
Russia will also negotiate with Ukraine on the use of the Nitka naval pilot training facility.
The facility was built in Soviet days for pilots to practice their skills in taking off from and landing on an aircraft carrier's deck.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the facility remained under Ukrainian jurisdiction. The Ukrainian Navy does not have an aircraft carrier, while Russia has only one - the Admiral Kuznetsov - and plans to build at least three nuclear powered aircraft carriers in the future.
The center provides naval aviation training facilities such as a launch pad, an aerofinisher, a trampoline, a catapult launching device, a glide-path localizer, a marker beacon, and an optical landing system.
