Ukraine is increasing the presence of the Allied fleet from NATO countries in the Black and Azov Seas, the president said.
Vladimir Zelensky / photo by REUTERS
Ukraine plans to build a new navy by 2035.
This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with Ukrainian journalists from the Crimea, the press service of the Office of the President .
“As for our navy – now we have three stages. By 2035 – the construction of a large fleet. The first stage we will see in reality – it will definitely be until 2024. The second stage is invested until 2030, the third – until 2035 “, – the president told.
Zelensky noted that Ukraine is creating infrastructure for the construction of the navy: small submarines, corvettes and military boats. In addition, they plan to begin construction of naval bases.
“The first will be built (naval base – UNIAN) in Berdyansk. The idea is to support this project from the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States. We definitely received full support for this project from the United Kingdom. I will have a meeting with the President The United States, and this (development of the Ukrainian Navy – UNIAN) is part of our meeting and part of the “Crimean platform”, – he said.
The head of state stressed that the issue of unblocking the Black Sea and Azov coasts is part of the deoccupation of Crimea.
According to him, Ukraine is increasing the presence of the Allied fleet from NATO countries in the Black and Azov Seas.
“It’s not just the Sea Breeze issue, it’s the attitude and the constant work, the cooperation of our Ministry of Defense with the United States and the European Union. We also have real agreements in this direction with Turkey and the United Kingdom,” he added.
Navy in Ukraine: latest news
As previously reported, Navy Commander Rear Admiral Alexei Neizhpapa announced plans to create three divisions of offshore mobile complexes “Neptune” equipped with cruise missiles by 2025. The Navy believes that missile weapons should be the main deterrent at sea and protect the country from enemies.
In July 2020, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced that the United States had approved the sale of up to 16 Mark VI patrol boats and related equipment to Ukraine.
Construction of the first batch of ships will be completed by December 2022.
The ships will be built by SAFE Boats International LLC (Bremerton, Washington). The construction will cost almost 20 million dollars.
The customer from the USA is the command of Naval systems, and financing is carried out under the program of strengthening of defense capability of Ukraine.
On June 4, 2021, Zelensky announced that the United States would begin handing over Mark VI patrol boats to Ukraine in 2022.
(c)UNIAN 2021