Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has passed an An-26 aircraft restored by specialists of the aircraft repair enterprise Civil Aviation Plant 410 to the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"Today, on this important anniversary day, we are releasing to the sky another An-26 of the 26 Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces," Poroshenko said in Kyiv on Friday during solemn events marking the 70th anniversary of the plant's creation.

"I am sure that there will be other aircraft repaired and raised in the sky by professionals from the 410 plant. During the reform of the defense industry your enterprise will be strategic in Ukroboronprom's aviation cluster," he said.

Poroshenko said that the Ukrainian army already has a large number of new weapons, which anyone could only dream of three or four years ago. He also added that there had been an increase in the number of flight hours of Ukrainian pilots and in the number of aircraft repaired.