NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has welcomed the use of Ukrainian Mriya and Ruslan aircraft for strategic air operations of medical equipment facing COVID-19 challenge that demonstrates a close cooperation of the NATO allies with Ukraine.

"I saw these planes: they are huge, they have enormous capacity. And the Ukrainian planes shows how NATO cooperates with Ukraine to provide air operations for NATO allies," he said during an online press conference being asked by Interfax-Ukraine correspondent.

The online press conference took place before a virtual meeting of Allied Defence Ministers on April 15. Stoltenberg set out what the ministers will discuss, including NATO's response to the COVID-19 crisis and how the Alliance continues to deliver a strong deterrence and defence.

"We can stand together and address common challenges as a COVID-19 is. We are all affected we need to respond in a common way. We're now looking how we can further strength partnership between Ukraine and NATO and Enhance Opportunity Program is one of the elements of discussion, its early for me to conclude, but everything we are doing together strengthens our cooperation," he said.