Ukraine and Russia depend on each other very much in their long-lasting history and in various spheres of cooperation, economic and cultural relations, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara has said.

"We depend on each other. Russia has been our long-standing and biggest trade partner. This situation has never changed, even despite a slight decline in bilateral trade this year," Kozhara said during a joint lecture with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at the Don State Technical University on Monday.

The Ukrainian minister said that "Ukraine is also important to Russia."

"On the results of 2012, Ukraine was the fifth largest trade partner of Russia following China, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, which were only slightly ahead of us," Kozhara said.

He added that "we're well ahead of such countries as Belarus, Turkey, Japan and many other states" in terms of Russia's foreign trade turnover.

The minister said that "today Ukraine makes trains and aircraft, vessels and spacecraft."

"Today together with Russia's Energia Corporation we are successfully implementing the Sea Launch space project of four countries – Ukraine, Russia, Norway, and the United States. We launch commercial rockets into space not far from the state of Hawaii in the United States," the minister said.

Kozhara added that Ukraine is a leader in the sphere of software development.

"IT outsourcing is a large market in Ukraine and its scales are estimated at around $2 billion. Around 30,000 to 40,000 Ukrainian programmers work on this market. Ukraine is in second place after India in terms of IT growth," Kozhara said.