Argentina's Air Force will hand over two Mi-171E helicopters to Ukraine. An agreement to hand over two helicopters to Ukrainian for rescue operations was reached during Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to the country for Javier Milei's presidential inauguration, the local news website Pucara Defensa has said.
The contract for the supply of two Russian Mi-171Es to Argentina was signed in Buenos Aires in late August 2010. This was Argentina's first purchase of Russian-made equipment.
They cost €20 million. The contract also included training for Argentine pilots and technicians. According to the website's sources, the United States proposed to include the residual value of the helicopters in the recalculation of the first payments for Buenos Aires's purchase of F-16 fighters from Denmark's stocks.
"Negotiations are currently underway on the terms of compensation to the Argentine side for the transfer of the helicopters to Ukraine," it said.
At the moment, both helicopters with the numbers H94 and H95 are out of service. They have reached the end of their service life before scheduled inspection and other repairs.