Last year, government subsidies to finish the construction of the Ukrainian naval flagship missile cruiser Ukraine at the Mykolayiv Shipyard, proudly named for 61 Communards, were a mere 10% of the amount needed. According to shipyard general director Mykhailo Zhelo, his enterprise received UAH 4 million from the customer, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, instead of the UAH 40 million due.
Begun in Mykolayiv under the Soviets, the cruiser (then named the Admiral Lobov) was meant for the Soviet Navy. After the USSR disintegrated, the warship, then 95% ready, was in dry dock for several years, as Russia said it did not need it (the shipyard recently finished repairs on an analogous Russia cruiser, the Moskva (former the Slava). Selling the cruiser to a third party was impossible; it turned out to contain secrets of the former Soviet military- industrial complex. Experts were also skeptical about finishing the cruiser’s construction for the Ukrainian Navy, because using a ship of this class in the Black Sea, Ukraine’s area of interest, was considered ill- advised and prohibitively expensive. In addition, the cruiser was designed to carry nuclear warheads. Considering Ukraine’s nuclear-free status, it could now carry only conventional weapons, which does not befit a warship of this class.
Nevertheless, the future flagship of the Ukrainian Navy twice became flagship of the regional election campaign. First in 1998 when Premier and NDP leader Valery Pustovoitenko said at a campaign rally in Mykolayiv that the cruiser would be completed for the Ukrainian Naval Forces. After the elections no one remembered the promise. A year ago, the warship was remembered by the Defense Minister who said in an interview with The Day that the Admiral Lobov, renamed the Ukraine, would join the Ukrainian Navy in November 2000, that it would be commissioned personally by President Kuchma, and that to finish construction the 61 Communards would receive 100,000 hryvnias.
Ideologically, everything was done properly; the ship was fully manned, the national colors unfurled (although naval standing procedure says the ceremony should take place only after launching the warship). As for actual construction, the work was kept to a minimum. Last year’s debt payable by the Ukraine Defense Ministry amounted to UAH 36 million. Another UAH 1.1 million was due for electricity. Incidentally, payments for the Moskva repairs are still to be negotiated, although the cruiser returned to the Russian Navy last year.
Mykhailo Zhelo says if construction project is properly funded, the Ukraine will be ready for sea trials late this year. At the same time, this will provide about 1,500 new jobs at the shipyard, which currently is practically idle.
