"The national military-political leadership has taken the decision on a closer interaction between Russian and Ukrainian, especially south Ukrainian, works in the field of rocket manufacture", he said.
Commenting on the commander's words, his former deputy for armaments Colonel-General Alexander Ryazhskikh (retired), told RIA Novosti: "Cooperation with Ukraine is required to prolong the warranty service life of heavy rockets, like Satana".
To Ryazhskikh, over 40 percent of such production cooperation has remained in Ukraine, including the Dnepropetrovsk-based Yuzhnoe design office, having to do immediately with heavy rockets.
He said that such heavy rockets are no longer removed from combat duty and now Russia has to extend their service life. Ukraine will get financial benefits from such cooperation, he added.
On Thursday Ryazhskikh presented his book "Look Back and Forward". "On its pages the author reflects on the future of the Strategic Rocket Troops, shares his impressions on meetings and joint work with the SRT commanders, general designers, directors of factories, ministers of the defence industry", the SRT press service said.
"Work of military engineers is out of bounds for public at large. The tough secrecy pledge has made mass media reports on their work impossible and kept the public mostly unaware of the role of military engineers in forming the SRT group. Ryazhskikh's two-volume book tells of their active involvement in every stage of rocket weapons development, from designing to utilisation", the press service said.
