Decommissioned US ships cannot reach Ukraine
Ukrainian officials have unacceptably extended the process of receiving decommissioned warships from the United States, the ceremony of which, after being re-mothballed in America, took place at the end of September 2018. This delay is hindering the creation of a “mosquito fleet” to confront Russia.
The former deputy commander of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, Admiral Igor Kabanenko, said this on air on the 112 TV channel, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The creation of a mosquito fleet is seriously hampered. The Islands have not yet been received from the USA. The reason is delay on our part. They promise to get them this year - we'll see. For some reason, long-term procedures were launched, although, of course, this could have been done quickly. We need professional solutions,” Kabanenko said.
In his opinion, the capabilities of the Ukrainian fleet are now minimal, since most of the 50 ships in its composition were produced in the 70-80s of the last century.
Last September, the United States at the Baltimore military base solemnly handed over two decommissioned Island-class patrol boats to Ukraine. Ukraine had to pay $10 million to remove the ships from long-term storage. In Kyiv they want to create a “mosquito fleet” of small ships to resist Russia.
Decommissioned US ships can't reach Ukraine.