KYIV, Dec 19 - Ukraine has invited Portugal to joint work on the creation of a firefighting aircraft, according to Svyatoslav Tsegolko, press secretary for President Petro Poroshenko.

"Ukraine has offered Portugal to develop a firefighting plane on Antonov's basis," he wrote on his Twitter page on Monday.

Tsegolko also said that Poroshenko had thanked Portugal for recognizing the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people this year.