KYIV. May 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine plans to increase its arms exports, including the export of tanks, Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said.
"We have tanks and we are ready to offer them on the arms markets," Yekhanurov said at a news conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
Asked whether Georgia had asked to be sold Ukrainian T-72 tanks, Yekhanurov said that his ministry does not deal with this.
But Yekhanurov expressed regret that official statistics put Ukraine at 16th place among the world's arms exporters.
"We would very much like to regain 10th place," he said.
Interfax was earlier informed by sources on May 19, that the Georgian Defense Ministry had negotiated shipments of 20 T-72 tanks to Tbilisi with the Ukrainian state arms trader Ukrspetseksport.
"This military hardware had been put through pre-sale checks at the Lviv tank plant. The tanks will be shipped after the payment is made," a source claimed.
"Tanks will be delivered to Georgia at a price of $250,000 each," he said.
Ukrspetseksport, meanwhile, has denied selling T-72 tanks to Georgia. An official with the Lviv tank repair plant has denied reports claiming that the plant conducted pre-sale checks on 20 T-72 tanks intended for Georgia.