Russia does not want to buy Ukrainian missiles. Roskosmos refused to purchase the Ukrainian missile "Zenit", which until recently was considered to be the best carrier in the world, “Izvestia” reports.
According to the source of the newspaper, a long-established price was offered for the rocket built into the budget in advance - about 1.2 billion rubles for the rocket. However, the Ukrainian partners did not accept the proposal, they asked for more - about 1.4 billion rubles. Under such conditions, the transaction loses its meaning, because for 1.5 billion rubles Roscosmos may order the production of "Proton " – a carrier of greater capacity, RBC reports.
"Over the past five years, the price of "Zenit" has trebled. Of course, this is not normal."Yuzhmash" explains this by changing prices of cooperation partners, saying that "Zenit" has up to 70% of the components from Russia – from metal to the RD- 171 engine”, the deputy director of "Space International Services” (which launches "Zenit" from Baikonur), Michael Gerasyov, said.
"This year we were not able to negotiate with the Russian Space Agency on the prices of missiles, because of the rise in the price of Russian components. This is an uncontrolled process, and here we cannot do anything. Believe me, our wages do not change. They are quite small by Russian standards - $400 on average in the enterprise. Our work in recent years has not been going up in price, and the appreciation is due to the supplies from Russia, where we buy 70% of the components and materials", the deputy director of "Yuzhmash", Sergei Voit said.
"Yuzhmash" was founded in 1944 in Dnepropetrovsk. In addition to space launch vehicles, it also produced missiles for the railway complex of the SRF.
