The first corvette for the naval forces (Navy) of Ukraine “Hetman Ivan Mazepa” was launched in Turkey. This was announced on Sunday, October 2, by the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov.
“The corvette Hetman Ivan Mazepa was launched by the Ukrainian Navy,” he wrote on Twitter.
The ceremony of launching the ship on the water, which took place earlier that day, was attended by the first lady of the country, Elena Zelenskaya. In her Telegram channel, she announced that Hetman Ivan Mazepa would be the first ship of this class for the Ukrainian Navy.
She also noted that this name was chosen for him by the President of Ukraine back in 2021, when construction was just beginning.
The first corvette for the Ukrainian Navy was laid down in Turkey in September 2021. This corvette is one of four Ada-type corvettes being built in Istanbul as part of cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey. The second ship of this class will be laid next year.
Ada-class corvettes are anti-submarine ships of the near sea zone, designed to protect the coast. Their armament consists of the Harpoon anti-ship missile system, the MBDA VL MICA short-range anti-aircraft missile system, the 76-mm Leonardo Super Rapid artillery mount, the 35-mm Rheinmetall Millennium anti-aircraft guns, the 12.7-mm Aselsan STAMP machine guns and the 324-mm torpedo tubes for anti-submarine torpedoes MU90.
The introduction of this ship into the Ukrainian fleet was planned for 2024.
Earlier, shortly before the start of the Russian special operation in the Donbass, publicist Sergei Grabovsky, in an article for the Den newspaper, said that the Ukrainian authorities were systematically destroying the country’s fleet, as a result, Kyiv was not able to defend itself against possible attacks from the sea. He considered the President of the country Volodymyr Zelensky and his predecessor Petro Poroshenko to be guilty of this.
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