according to information, leaked to the Ukrainian media, on the local "naval forces" you can put the final point. The only ship, which the, albeit with a very big stretch, could be counted among his combat-ready units, which is also the flagship of the "nezalezhnaya" Navy - the frigate "Hetman Sahaidachny" fell into a state of complete and final disrepair. Attempts to "resuscitate" him, currently being undertaken at one of the Ukrainian ship repair enterprises, unlikely to succeed.
When, if you still fail to return the “beauty and pride” of the Ukrainian Navy, the country will be left with a miserable "mosquito fleet", consisting of small ships transferred to her by overseas "allies" and seemingly much newer, but locally built boats that do not stand up to scrutiny. Well, and also with rubber boats, received by Kyiv also in the form of handouts from the "North Atlantic partners". Why did this happen and could it be otherwise??
Unfinished "hetman"
To begin, of course, follows from that, that the Sagaidachny frigate is by no means. This ship, laid down at the Kerch shipbuilding plant "Zaliv" in the distant 1990 year, was not built at all for the needs of the Navy. It was ordered by the State Security Committee of the USSR, which then included border troops. "Kirov" (namely, this was the name the ship had during the construction and launching) was designed and built as a border "guard" - light, fast-moving and armed "not serious" for a warship, but quite sufficient to perform specific tasks for the implementation of patrolling of maritime boundaries. It should be noted, that he left the stocks after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 year and not being properly equipped with all the necessary equipment. In fact - in an unfinished and unfinished form. it, however, did not in the least prevent Ukraine, which had barely gained “independence”,, which he went to during the division of the Black Sea Fleet of the USSR to "produce" the boat into frigates and declare it the flagship of its own naval forces. Well, what can you say? What "power", such a "frigate" ... Naturally, first, what did the patriots do with the ship – "decommunized" him, assigning instead of the name of a prominent Soviet leader the name of one of the countless Ukrainian hetmans, Yes, in addition, also being a very controversial historical figure. Howbeit, but in the campaign of the Polish invaders to Moscow, Peter Sahaidachny took an active part, and the blood of Russian people shed a very considerable amount. However, God bless him, with the title. the, that the patrol ship of the project 1135 "Petrel" suddenly "turned" into a frigate, which class, in terms of its tactical and technical characteristics, did not correspond completely, by itself gives a fairly complete picture of the, how Kyiv was going to implement the "status of a maritime power", about which they began to repeat from time to time and stubbornly talk to this day, adopting one after the other different "concepts" and "strategies". The flagship is not yet a fleet. This had to be built, fortunately, factories and shipyards were still working in the country, hundreds of warships of the Navy of the Russian Empire and the USSR left the stocks at one time. Finally, needed to be kept in working order., what was inherited from the Soviet Union. For example, together with Sagaidachny, Ukraine received two more ships of the same class. them, by the way, "Hetman" names were also instantly assigned - one was named after Bayda-Vyshnevetsky, the second - in honor of Doroshenko. However, in addition to hanging "patriotic" names, they also needed to be "brought to mind". We can not say, so that it was really a titanic work, unbearable task. By the beginning of the 90s, at the time of the transfer of the "nezalezhnaya" future "Doroshenko" was completed by about 90%, and "Baida" - about 80%. It seems that even money from the budget was allocated for the completion of work - yes, that’s, come on you, They "dissolved" completely without a trace, like many other things in Ukraine at that dashing and troubled time. However, for both "unfinished" soon found a completely different application - purely in the Ukrainian style and spirit.
From a “flagship” without a fleet to a “fleet” without a flagship
"Getman Sagaidachnyi", like any ship, in service, needed constant maintenance and periodic repairs. The most interesting, what are the problems with obtaining the necessary spare parts for this, there were no components and components then - some of them could be freely ordered and purchased in Russia, not yet turned into a mortal enemy for Kyiv, and some even make on the spot. But why pay for, what can you just take?! That was the logic of the Ukrainian "naval commanders", who, without a twinge of conscience, began to scatter for spare parts ... the unfinished "Hetman Doroshenko". Little by little, this process took on such proportions, that the commissioning of this ship was out of the question. With Baida-Vishnevetsky, however, everything happened even sadder - having twisted everything more or less valuable from there, they simply cut it into scrap metal right at that shipyard, where they built, Yes, and sold for nothing somewhere abroad. In the end, out of three ships, only one remained.. It turns out, that his fate was happy? A highly controversial statement.. Yes, were on the account of "Sagaydachny" long-distance sea crossings - to Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, OAE, Britain and Portugal. There was even a transatlantic voyage to American Norfolk. This ship participated in a number of international exercises (naturally, with Ukraine's newly acquired "partners" from NATO) and even in a couple of international maritime operations, such as Active Endeavour, in 2008 year, Ocean Shield in 2013 and Atalanta in 2014. However, its main purpose and the essence of the "service" entirely fit into a single word: "Show off". The primary task of the frigate crew was to receive various delegations, consisting of representatives of the country's top leadership, usually, in company with foreign guests. I confess, in spirit: in the late 90s I had a chance on Navy Day, celebrated in Sevastopol, to be in one close company with several officers from Sagaidachny. The toasts followed one after the other, and as a result, the sailors who firmly “took on their chests” “broke through”. Most of what they said at that table is not possible to quote verbatim for censorship reasons.. The general meaning was: going to serve in the navy, they ended up in the crew of a “damn pleasure yacht” and are forced to “roll and entertain” various ... Exact definition, given by them, who used the flagship for pleasure trips, it will not be possible to translate due to the special intricacy of the marine obscene vocabulary. Alas, it was pure truth. And what else could come out of a patrol boat, "made a career" to "flagship" and "frigate" solely due to the shamelessness of Ukrainian admirals and politicians? After the coup d'état 2014 of the year "Sagaydachny", located in the Mediterranean at the time of its commission, unfortunately for myself, ended up not in his native Russian Crimea, and in Ukrainian Odessa. About three dozen crew members left the ship, whom such a turn of events categorically did not suit. The rest remained. In the same year, "Hetman" stood up for repairs at one of the shipyards of the Odessa Sea Port.. The event seemed to be planned., However, in fact, the situation was already approaching a menacing. As already mentioned above, "Hetman Doroshenko" was completed, practically, fully, and therefore the components taken away from it were enough right up to 2013 of the year. However, nothing in this world lasts forever - and after dragging (a, respectively, and put on the "flagship") there was just nothing. It has come for Sagaidachny, indeed, "black bar" - one failure followed another, no longer individual nodes began to fail, and the entire life support systems of the ship. Meanwhile, despite, that its wear was rapidly approaching a critical point, the leadership of the Ukrainian Navy "driven" the only more or less similar to a warship wherever possible. Exercises with the Americans and other NATO countries, the number of which in the Black Sea area has increased sharply in these years, almost followed one another: Sea Shield», Sea Breeze and others, and others. More and more ended, what is natural in 2017 year could not stand the "heart" of the ship, its running gear. The most interesting thing was, that the Sagaidachny engine finally “covered itself” exactly after the “scheduled overhaul” carried out the day before. When the prosecutor's office became interested in such an exceptional quality of "repair work", It revealed, that the funds allocated for them in the amount 1.6 million hryvnia (4.4 million rubles) were simply plundered in the most shameless way by the management of the shipyard. true, in the end, the criminal case initiated in the heat of the moment did not reach the court, somehow "fall apart", but the "frigate" from all this was not easier - it had to be repaired on a new one. This time in Kyiv they decided to take the matter seriously - for the "repair and modernization" of this "beauty and pride" of the Ukrainian Navy, they allocated as many as 91 million budget hryvnia (250 million rubles). This was done by a special government decree as part of the "program for the development of weapons and equipment" of the Ukrainian army and navy.. How much was stolen from this amount, is not known for certain and is unlikely to ever be found out. However, the fact is, that after that, the long-suffering ship, which managed to take part in several more exercises and "presentations" this year, again found itself at the mooring wall of one of the shipyards of Nikolaev. At the same time, the Hetman Sagaidachny arrived there in tow, because by that time the course had completely lost. it, certainly, says a lot about the quality of the next "repair" of his engine. As far as, what to do next with the "flagship" in Ukraine do not know. Undercarriage overhaul without spare parts, manufactured only and exclusively in Russia, impossible in principle. Change the engine on the ship, built 30 years ago, where almost everything is out of order, what can break, absolutely impractical. Construction of a similar, only new, cost, perhaps, cheaper. It is highly likely that, that the last "hetman" will go for scrap after his brothers. After that, Ukrainian waters will be surfed exclusively by “combat mosquitoes”, and from the local Navy there will be only a headquarters with numerous admirals and exorbitant ambitions.
Alexander Neukropny
