Russia plans to stop using Ukraine's naval aviation training facility

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KIEV, Sept. 10 -- Ukraine on Tuesday said it is considering other options to determine the future use of its Nitka naval aviation training facility after Russia decided not to rent the site starting next year.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday Russia had officially informed Kiev of a decision to stop the use of the Nitka naval aviation training facility in Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula beginning 2014.

"Moscow's decision was predictable for the Ukrainian side, as the Russian Federation has set up a similar facility on its territory," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Eugene Perebiynis at a news briefing here.

Nitka, which provides a base for naval pilots to practice their skills in taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier's deck, was built during the Soviet-era. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine inherited the training site.

Russia has been renting the site to train its carrier pilots since 1997 in line with the intergovernmental agreement signed between the two countries.

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