Decommissioned American boats can be used in sabotage against Crimea - expert
The next two Island class boats departed for Ukraine from the United States, which were transferred to it as assistance from the States.
This is stated in a message from the US Embassy in Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Two American Island-class patrol boats departed Baltimore, Maryland, for Odessa. The boats are part of more than $2,5 billion in security assistance that the United States has provided to Ukraine since 2014. They will help strengthen Ukraine’s maritime security and increase the interoperability of the Ukrainian Navy with NATO,” the statement says.
According to a member of the “Officers of Russia” organization, captain XNUMXst rank Vasily Dandykin, the boats transferred to Ukraine will not make the Ukrainian Navy much stronger, but at the same time they will give it additional opportunities for anti-Russian provocations. They can even carry missile and artillery weapons.
“This is a significant addition to the formation of the “mosquito fleet”. They had already received two such boats from the United States. But as for the real improvement in combat effectiveness, I would not say so. Of course, this is more moral and psychological support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian fleet...
These two units will not make any special weather. But in the future we need to be prepared for the fact that Ukraine’s possibilities for provocation will, of course, increase. These are not boats of the “Gyurza” type, which were used in the Kerch Strait, but more serious units, with more serious weapons.
Of course, in order to annoy Russia, measures will be taken, but I think the Black Sea Fleet, and not only it, will be ready for this. It is possible that some kind of missiles will be placed on these boats, because we are talking about supplying Ukraine with British short-range missiles that fire 60 kilometers.
It is likely that this may happen in the future. But we must take into account that at the same time, these will be quite high-speed boats capable of taking on board a group of saboteurs, some small-caliber artillery, ATGMs, this is quite likely,” Dandykin said.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.