“I would like to wish the crew of this boat to always defeat the enemy just as our army, our great people will always defeat him,” Turchinov emphasized. The launching ceremony took place at the Leninskaya Kuznya plant, where the boat was built. The plant, by the way, belongs to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.
Probably, under the initiators of the "freeze", Turchinov had in mind the former President Viktor Yanukovych, during whose rule - in October 2012 - the first two boats were laid down. Then the authorities said that the boats would be needed to solve problems in the Danube basin and in the coastal zone of the Black and Azov Seas. At that time, Ukraine was actively in conflict with neighboring Romania over the disputed areas of the oil-bearing shelf of the Black Sea. However, then their construction was frozen due to lack of funds. Work began again in 2014, and now the boats have been commissioned.
In 2013, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine created a division of river ships of the Navy in Odessa. The location of the division was declared the Practical Harbor of the Western Naval Base of the Navy, and as its tasks - service on border rivers, lakes, estuaries, as well as during external raids in coastal waters. Until 2017, it was planned to build nine boats of the Gyurza-M type for the Ukrainian Navy, Maxpark reported.
As "Interfax-Ukraine" reminds, the displacement of the small armored artillery boat (MBAK) "Gyurza-M" is 51.1 tons, the cruising speed is 25 knots, the crew is 5 people, the autonomous navigation range is 900 miles.
First Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Captain 1st Rank Konstantin Sivkov notes that the Ukrainian Navy has not received new ships in recent years, and even such boats will be a "significant acquisition" for them. He recalled that the flagship of the Ukrainian fleet, the Hetman Sagaidachny frigate, is just an analogue of the Russian patrol ship, a ship of the second rank.
“The same can be said about the new boat. He has a displacement of only 51, 1 ton. Of the weapons, at best, it can be equipped with a 76-mm cannon from a PT-76 tank, one large-caliber machine gun and an installation for launching unguided rockets. Everything. These are the ultimate possibilities,”Sivkov explained to the VZGLYAD newspaper.
According to him, the booking of such a boat cannot exceed 25 mm. “In reality, there is 15-16 millimeters, at the base is an armored belt, an armored wheelhouse. At best, this armor will protect him from bullets from heavy machine guns. And that's not all. So these are all games. 51 tons is ridiculous, this is squalor. An ordinary tank will pierce such a boat through and through. This boat is capable of making a short raid in the coastal part, landing a sabotage group, firing at a target on the coast and then having time to escape before they roll over,”Sivkov said.
Vyacheslav Tseluiko, a Ukrainian military expert, associate professor at the Karazin Kharkiv National University, recalled that it was planned to build boats of this project because of friction with Romania over the Danube Delta. “Now the relevance of these supplies has decreased,” Tseluiko told the VZGLYAD newspaper, suggesting that after the launch, the boats will still serve on the Danube, that is, in the west of the republic, far from the “ATO zone”.
As part of the Ukrainian Navy, replenishment - two armored artillery boats at once. They are intended for service mainly on rivers and estuaries, but they can also be used as coastal sea boats.
He also agreed with Sivkov that these boats cannot be considered a significant acquisition for the Ukrainian Navy and that "the repair of tanks and howitzers is much more important than one armored boat." “There was such a thing as the gunboat policy, when ships armed to the teeth went to distant countries and represented the interests of great powers there. Their combat value was insignificant, but they displayed the flag. So in this case, a couple of boats in the Danube Delta will be a flag demonstration, so to speak, in disputed territories,”Tseluiko suggests.
As for Kiev's hopes for the supply of American ships, the expert emphasizes that the relevance of this issue is low and the Ukrainian military are waiting more for more urgent things - communications, thermal imagers, Hummers and artillery radars - what was promised and included in the expenses of the American budget for the next year”.
Recall that in March Kiev was negotiating with the West on the supply of weapons, in particular, on the free transfer of American coast guard boats to the naval forces and the purchase of used corvettes and minesweepers at the lowest possible price.
In June, RIA Novosti-Ukraine reported that the United States had indeed transferred five high-speed boats to the Ukrainian Navy. The ships are equipped with Furuno navigation radars, machines for 7, 62-mm machine guns, spare parts and tools. Four boats were intended for the special forces of the Navy, and the fifth - for the search and rescue service of the fleet. The boats were promised to be used for "quiet and fast" delivery of special forces to the necessary areas, for patrolling the area and fighting saboteurs. The cost of boats varies from 350 to 850 thousand dollars.
However, since then there have been no new messages about the exact water area of the boats. And Tseluiko noted that he knew nothing about the fate of this five.
As the newspaper VZGLYAD wrote, in July, representatives of the NATO assessment and advisory group visited Nikolaev to inspect the material and technical base of the training center of the Naval Forces of Ukraine and the naval air base and discuss the preparation of the aviation component of the Navy. In Odessa, the delegation visited the flagship of the Ukrainian fleet - the frigate Hetman Sagaidachny.
Since Kiev has no money for the fleet, Ukrainian experts were counting on a gift at that time. “Perhaps we will talk about the transfer of some funds, ships, aircraft from the United States to Ukraine,” Vyacheslav Tseluiko did not rule out then. “It could be one or two frigates, like Oliver Perry. Perhaps anti-submarine defense helicopters."
As the newspaper VZGLYAD noted in early October, Ukraine ranks ninth in the world in arms sales, is fighting and dramatically increasing its military budget. In such conditions, the country's military-industrial complex should flourish, but exactly the opposite happens - the industry declines and produces "illiquid". The reasons are in extremely ineffective managers who are perfectly able to “rub glasses” on the country's leadership.
It remains to add that during the Soviet era on the territory of modern Ukraine, in Nikolaev, the largest ship of the Russian Navy, the aircraft-carrying cruiser "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov", was built with a displacement of 65 thousand tons. Today's Ukraine can only dream of building such warships.
