(Reuters) – Russian state-owned airline Aeroflot, which is currently under severe sanctions from the West and unable to fly on most international flights, announced Tuesday that it plans to issue new shares to raise 185.2 billion roubles ($3 Billion) to fund its flagship Russian state carrier.

Aeroflot was controlled by the Russian government, which pledged to provide capital for the relief of the sanctions. The annual shareholder meeting of Aeroflot approved the issue of 5.42billion new shares at a cost of 34.29 Rupees per share under open subscription.

Aeroflot only began to recover after the coronavirus pandemic two years ago. Sanctions also prevented Aeroflot from receiving parts for its aircraft and conducting maintenance. However, the government offered to provide support in the form of 107 billion Russian rubles ($1.83 billion).

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) was the source of the injection. It is Russia’s first rainy-day bank, originally created to support large-scale infrastructure projects.

Aeroflot’s Tuesday statement did not give details about the amount of new shares the state could purchase. Reuters asked Aeroflot but was not able to get a response.

Aeroflot shares were purchased by the government for 80 billion roubles via the NWF.

($1 = 60.9600 roubles)

($1 = 58.5000 roubles)