Volga-Dnepr Airlines (VI, Ulyanovsk Vostochny) announced, on April 12, its decision to terminate its participation in Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS), a partnership with the NATO covering transporting military and humanitarian supplies, Cargo Forwarder has reported.

Formally, the Russian cargo specialist has justified its decision saying that it wants to focus on civilian goods. However, the step can be put in the context of growing geopolitical tensions between the NATO and Russia.

Under the terms of the SALIS contract, twelve European NATO member states, as well as non-NATO members Finland and Sweden, have been chartering six An-124-100s from Volga-Dnepr Airlines since 2006. The aircraft chartered by NATO from the Russian airline are eventually expected to be replaced by the delayed A400Ms, although the timeline is uncertain due to the certification issues with the Airbus freighters.

The contract also provides an option to use Volga-Dnepr's Il-76s freighters, although they are not deployed on a regular basis. Formally, the SALIS operations are performed by Volga-Dnepr's Leipzig/Halle-based subsidiary, Ruslan SALIS GmbH.

Volga-Dnepr already lost its contracts with the US Transportation Command in 2015.

The Russian carrier's decision will leave NATO's strategic airlift capabilities significantly reduced. SALIS operations are also contracted to Antonov Airlines (ADB, Gostomel), but the Ukrainian operator's fleet of An-124-100s provides less than half of the overall workload. According to Cargo Forwarder it is also unclear whether Volga-Dnepr will keep its An-124 MRO facility at Leipzig/Halle in the wake of the SALIS withdrawal, but the group is also planning to establish a new Leipzig/Halle based cargo carrier using An-124s regardless.

Prior to the outbreak of the war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass area, Ruslan SALIS GmbH had been a 50/50 joint-venture between Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Antonov Airlines.