UKRAINE PAYS DAMAGES FOR RUSSIAN AIRLINER BROUGHT DOWN BY MISSILE

MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine has paid damages to the families of the passengers killed on board the Russian Tu-154M airliner that was hit by a Ukrainian stray missile on October 4, 2001, Russia's Foreign Ministry says in a press release.

The amount of money transferred reportedly totals $7.8 million.

A Russo-Ukrainian intergovernmental agreement on the settlement of crash-related claims came into effect on November 19 this year.

"On December 20, the Ukrainian side formally notified the Russian Foreign Ministry about the December 13 transfer of the amount of money designated in the given agreement to the Bank of Russia," the Foreign Ministry reports.

In accordance with a resolution of the Russian government, the money paid in damages for the TU-154M crash will be distributed among the families of the victims by Russia's Health and Social Development Ministry.

The Russian airliner, which was carrying out a Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk flight, came down over the Black Sea as it got hit with an anti-aircraft missile fired by Ukrainian Air Defense forces. All the 78 people on board were killed in the crash. Most of the victims were Russian and Israeli nationals.