Rome, 24 April 2024 – And now, the navy. Ukraine is effectively without a navy, after the Russians after the invasion took control of or destroyed a large part of the Ukrainian fleet. In early March 2022 the Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaidachny, the flagship, was scuttled in the port of Mykolaiv to prevent its capture by Russian forces and On March 3 it was the turn of the patrol boat Slavyansk, which was fatally hit by an anti-ship missile from the Russian naval aviation. And on March 14, the icing on the cake, the Russian armed forces captured a dozen Ukrainian ships in Berdiansk. The Ukrainian navy was essentially reduced to nothing.
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But things could change, partly because Ukrainian missiles and drones have made the Black Sea a contestable sea and no longer a “Russian lake”, as Puntin would have liked. Partly because the construction times are coming “to maturity”. two anti-submarine corvettes Ada class – Turkish MILGEM project – which were ordered in Turkey in December 2020 and whose construction was entrusted to the RMK Marine shipyards.
Ukrainian corvette Ivan Mazepa
The construction of the first unit, the Ivan Mazepa, began in April 2021, therefore well before the Russian invasion. On August 9, 2021, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense had revealed the weapons systems for the corvettes. The corvette would be equipped with American RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles and MU90 torpedoes. For protection, the French MICA missiles would have been installed and then a 12.7 mm STAMP machine gun, a 35 mm Gokdeniz CIWS cannon made by Aselsan and a 76 mm OTO Melara cannon. AND Oto Melara is an Italian company. The government’s report onItalian arms exports sent to parliament a month ago he confirms that the Ukrainian unit will have Italian armament. In fact, the report mentions exportation by Leonardo (which controls Oto Melara from La Spezia, world leader in naval guns) of a 76/62 rapid-fire naval gun towards Turkey and related initial training and maintenance.
The anti-submarine corvette is practically ready, and President Zelensky himself moved to see it almost completed during his visit to Istanbul last March 8, in which he announced the construction of a second unit in the same shipyard. “Today – he said Volodimyr Zelensky – I visited the construction of two Ukrainian corvettes. They will be truly fearsome units. Ivan Mazepa will be ready to serve Ukraine this year. The second corvette was named Ivan Vyhovsky and will be ready later according to the monster plan to jointly produce weapons that will strengthen our Armed Forces”. The road is still long also because it remains to be seen if and when the Turks will allow the delivery of the two units , with open conflict. At the moment no one can make any predictions.
