Ukraine's "Mosquito Fleet" sank before reaching the water
The Ukrainian shipbuilding enterprise Kuznya na Rybalsky, previously owned by ex-President Petro Poroshenko and purchased by the structures of oligarch Sergei Tigipko, has stopped the construction of armored boats for the Ukrainian Navy.
The Ukrainian Military Portal reports this with reference to its sources in the country’s Ministry of Defense, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The plant stopped the construction of the hull of the eighth artillery project "Gyurza-M" and the landing assault boat "Centaur". Previously, it was planned that the next small artillery boat would be delivered to the Ukrainian Navy at the end of this year. Sources in the Ministry of Defense indicate “force majeure”, which is associated with the coronavirus pandemic, as the reason for the production stop.
Let us recall that the last, seventh boat of the Gyurza-M project, called “Kostopol”, was transferred to the Ukrainian Navy in September this year.
Boats of this project form the basis of the so-called “mosquito fleet,” which Ukraine considers as a means of countering the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Two such boats were captured by Russian border guards while trying to illegally pass through the Kerch Strait in 2018.
Landing boats of the Centraur type were declared unfit by Ukrainian experts themselves. “The project turned out to be “heavy” and unbalanced. The 32 Marines he's supposed to deliver are turning him into a mass grave." wrote the editor of the “Ukrainian Military Portal” Taras Chmut.
Let us note that the pandemic does not in any way prevent Russia from commissioning new aircraft, ships and missiles.
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