The cessation of cooperation with Russian enterprises in 2014 has already led to huge losses for the Antonov State Enterprise, and the import substitution program turned out to be ineffective due to the lack of funding, which was previously promised by the Ukrainian government.
The president of the Antonov State Enterprise, Alexander Donets, stated this at a round table in Kyiv, as reported by the PolitNavigator correspondent.
“One of the big problems that fell on all heads here in 2014 is the gap with our neighbor. We did the math carefully. The minimum losses of Antonov alone (we did not count the losses of our fellow engine builders who make avionics for us, etc.) are more than a billion dollars. Only "Antonov" was lost. This is R&D, this is the extension of resources, these are customers that we had in a well-known country, these are the works that we performed individually - modification of machines, etc. A billion dollars lost. About 75 million did not go to the state budget over the years. Apparently there was no need.
We have joined the import substitution program. Everyone understands that this is a colossal job, huge labor costs, time and money that the previous Cabinet of Ministers promised us. The starting package was even calculated - two years for 700-odd million hryvnia. We would not be in a situation now where we are ashamed to look the customer in the eye. This money was not there. The program was calculated - this is about 200 million dollars over six years.
This is something necessary, whether we want it or not, if we are already involved in replacing materials, avionics, and units on those machines that are designed. Plus testing and certification. And they didn’t get a penny for it. Where will these planes come from? I can't make airplanes just like that. Any rivet on an airplane is documentation. This is not a pile of metal, this is years of work, benches, frequency tests, etc. I don’t know how to get through anymore,” Donets said.