''Ukraina'' is a Ukrainian originally ordered by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in the early 1980s under the name ''Admiral Flota Lobov''. After the Soviet Union disbanded in the early 1990s, the ship passed on to Russia and then to Ukraine, assuming the name ''Ukraina''. In 2010 the

Ukrainian parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

stripped the ship of its name. The ship remains unfinished and is currently moored at the

Mykolayiv Shipyard Mykolayiv Shipyard ( uk, Миколаївський суднобудівний завод) is a major shipyard owned by state and located in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. In modern times, the shipyard has been most commonly referred to as Mykolayiv North ...

(former 61 Kommunara Shipbuilding Plant).

History

The ship was laid down in 1983 and launched in 1990 just before the fall of the Soviet Union. Due to budget constraints work on the cruiser stopped in the early 1990s and the ship was left unfinished. In 1993 the cruiser was withdrawn from the Russian Navy and passed to

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. In 1997 Ukraine stated that it had no need for the cruiser and was willing to sell it. Russia was unwilling to buy the cruiser, China and India were then approached but showed no interest at the time. In addition, the U.S. government has asked the Ukrainian government to stop supplying military technology to China in exchange for

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

accession and economic assistance. According to Ukrainian sources in 2007 the cruiser needed 30 million dollars to be finished.

Status

The cruiser sits docked and unfinished at the harbor of

Mykolaiv Mykolaiv ( uk, Миколаїв, ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Southern Ukraine, the Administrative centre, administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast. Mykolaiv city, which provides U ...

in southern Ukraine. In April 2010, sources from the Russian defense committee claimed that Russia had plans to buy the unfinished cruiser from Ukraine. In May 2010, after talks with Russian president

Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, Ukrainian president

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of Di ...

stated that they had come to an agreement to finish the ship together. On 21 January 2011, Russian navy sources stated that Russia was only interested in obtaining the cruiser if they could have it free of charge. By early March 2011, Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdiukov stated that Russia was still waiting for an acceptable offer from Ukraine, regarding potential procurement of the missile cruiser. His Ukrainian counterpart Mikhail Yezhel responded that he would not scrap a 95% complete warship, and that the issue would be resolved in the near future. It was reported that the Ukrainian government invested 6.08 million UAH into the ship's maintenance in 2012. On 26 March 2017, it was announced that the Ukrainian Government would be scrapping the vessel which has been laid up, incomplete, for nearly 30 years in Mykolaiv. Maintenance and construction was costing the country US$225,000 per month. On 18 August 2018, it was reported that Brazil was interested in acquiring the ship, have it undergo extensive modernization and transfer it to the

Brazilian Navy ) , colors= Blue and white , colors_label= Colors , march= "Cisne Branco" ( en, "White Swan") (same name as training ship ''Cisne Branco'' , mascot= , equipment= 1 multipurpose aircraft carrier7 submarines6 frigates2 corvettes4 amphibious warf ...

. On 19 September 2019, the new director of

Ukroboronprom , type = State-owned enterprise , location = , industry = Conglomerate: Defense industry , predecessor = , founded = , founder = , hq_location_city = Kyiv , hq_location_country = Ukraine , num_locations = , num_locations_year = , ...

Aivaras Abromavičius announced that the ship would be sold. However, according to satellite imagery, the ship remains untouched as of August 2022.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ukrayina Cold War cruisers of the Soviet Union Slava-class cruisers of the Ukrainian Navy Ships built at Shipyard named after 61 Communards 1990 ships Ships built in the Soviet Union