It will take time and a diversification program to compensate for the breakup of traditional technological and industrial cooperation bonds with Russia in the space industry, Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) Liubomyr Sabadosh said.

He assessed the results of ongoing diversification and compensation for severed contacts with one of the principle partners and the formation of a book of orders by Pivdenmash (Dnipropetrovsk) in an interview with Interfax. "It will be possible to compensate for the breakup of cooperation with Russia, but this cannot be done quickly," he said, adding, "We should take certain steps towards diversifying production."

"Besides, Russia has been doing everything on the launch services market to limit our launching capacities: it is dumping the cost of Proton launches," Sabadosh said.

"I am sure that such methods won't be applied for long – It is irrational to subsidize high-tech industries," he said.

He said that the current book of orders "meets about a quarter" of Pivdenmash's needs.

"Zenit and Cyclone (Tsyklon) launch vehicles dropped out of the traditional book of orders due to the known events. Also, a launch contingency in 2014 resulted in a plunge in orders for the Antares LV," he said.

Sabadosh added that 2015 had been better than the previous year, and that 2016 would be better than 2015. "We have done a lot for the Antares LV, and we will continue doing so; it is planned to resume launches, which means there will be orders," he said.