Yes, two corvettes, Ternopil ( this one was actually moored in Sevastopol
bay) and Khmelnytsky (at Donuzlav) have been taken over. It does not
make any sense from military point of view. The Russians are
probably doing it to demoralize and humiliate the rest of the Ukrainian
military.
Both vessels are of Soviet era designs and initially were designated as
ASW small destroyers.
Khmelnytsky: displacement 495 tonnes, crew 41, was built in Russia in
1985. After the Soviet Union demise it was a pile of rusty metal
in possession by the Ukrainian Navy. Was pressed to service in 2011, i.e the Ukrainian
govt spent the money and finely made her sea worthy. It is curious that
the Russians assembled a boarding party of some 40 (!) armed troops to
capture the ship.
Ternopil was the most recent ship in the Ukrainian navy, built in Kyiv and
commissioned in 2002. The technology and design was still of the 80s, it
took whooping 11 years for the Ukr Govt to complete this ship of some 1200
tonnes displacement and 89 sailors crew.
So, originally ASW destroyers, classified as corvettes, and mostly used as
coastal guard cutters (therefore, are not capable to do any of the jobs
right!). Not much of a threat to any Navy, even the Russian one. They are
probably still capable to detect and destroy submarines...of the 80s
vintage and pretty much harmless to modern submarines, except some obsolete
Russian buckets.
My point is the Russians will not use and decommission them anyway.
However, there is no war, technically, and legally these weapons are still
property of the Ukrainian government. I would not be holding my breath
about getting them back though...
On Thu, 20 Mar 2014, [email protected] wrote:
>
>
> I agree.
>
> It seems 15-20 people women & men unarmed but with hundreds
> of snipers and paratroopers behind them.
>
> I read in other accounts the Russian military was throwing
> grenades all around the ship and kept the ship personnel
> pinned down by snipers -- the old trick with unarmed
> civilians with women in the front. They count on the
> descency of the soldiers to not kill them.
>
> That is how Ukrainians are different than Russians. Russians
> would not have given a damn and shot everybody including
> children.
>
> I think all it would have taken is take down one civilian,
> a big hyper-aggressive guy and the rest would have backed off.
>
> Also have to remember, these ships were in port thus the
> ships did not have full contingency onboard. Thus were
> probably missing marines, gunners and other important
> soldiers. It was probably the maintenance crew & engineering
> staff.
>
> But I was not there. It is easy for us to be arm chair
> quarterbacks from the comfort behind our keyboards.
>
> There are stories that the Khmelnytsky & Lutsk vessels were
> also taken over in the same way.
>
>
> Larisa wrote:
>>
>> 15-20 people stormed the ship. That doesn't sound like very many to me -
>> sounds like they could have been repulsed. No?
>>
>> On 3/20/2014 12:02 PM, [email protected] wrote:
>>> Russians seized the Ukrainian Naval ship Ternopil in Sevastopil
>>>
>>> http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/03/20/7019753/
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> InfoUkes Inc. Gerald William Kokodyniak
> Suite 185, 3044 Bloor Street West Webmaster InfoUkes Inc.
> Etobicoke, Ontario [email protected]
> Canada M8X 2Y8 http://www.infoukes.com/
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Apr 01 2014 - 00:58:43 EST