Ukraine's Naval Forces deny reports they will leave Sevastopol base (10/17/04)

Ukraine's Naval Forces deny reports they will leave Sevastopol base

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Ministry of Defense stated on October 13 that Ukraine's Naval Forces were not preparing to leave its naval base to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, contrary to assertions made in various publications recently, including a prestigious international military journal.

"The Ukrainian navy has not and will not leave Sevastopol as its main base," explained Col. Kostyantyn Khivrenko, head of the press service of the Ministry of Defense.

Mr. Khivrenko said the statement made in Jane's Intelligence Digest, which claimed that it had received information contrary to what the Ministry of Defense was maintaining, was baseless and that the contingent of vessels now located in one of Sevastopol's five harbors, numbering about 50 in all, would remain anchored there.

Jane's Intelligence Digest, one of the most prestigious publications on military and intelligence affairs, which is published in London, reported on October 1 that Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma had decided to leave the Sevastopol harbors to the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

"Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma has agreed to this as part of a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whereby Ukraine will pull out of the port in return for Putin's agreement to back Kuchma's chosen successor, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, after Kuchma leaves office following presidential elections schedule for October 31," reported Jane's Intelligence Digest.

Several days after the publication of the story, the Ukrainian Sobor Party issued a statement in which it claimed that the Sevastopol fleet of the Ukrainian navy was already in the process of relocating to Donuzlav Bay, located on the coast of the Crimean Peninsula northwest of Sevastopol, where the Soviet Union had once kept a good portion of its Black Sea Fleet.

The Sobor Party issued a statement on October 4 in which it quoted what it said were informed sources, who said that "during planned exercises at sea, the 5th Brigade of the Ukrainian Naval Forces was ordered not to return to the Striletska Bay in Sevastopol but to sail to the new home base in the Donuzlav Bay," reported UNIAN.

The Sobor Party added that only the flagship of the Ukrainian navy, the frigate Petro Sahaidachni, and several other vessels remained in Sevastopol.

The problem of how to fit both the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the Ukrainian Naval Forces into the five harbors of Sevastopol has been an issue since the Soviet Black Sea Fleet was broken up and Ukraine agreed to allow Russia to maintain its BSF force in Sevastopol. Russia seemed to have gotten the better part of the 20-year agreement, which was signed in 1997. It received four of the harbors to use as ports - Sevastopolska, Pivdenna, Kurinna and Kozatska - while Ukraine received one - Striletska, which was also the smallest and shallowest of the five. For that reason Ukraine's four largest vessels were forced to dock in Kurinna Harbor, across the bay from the Russian Fleet, where they are considered guests, even while in their own country. As the commander of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, Admiral Ihor Kniaz, noted in an interview in Dzerkalo Tyzhnia in August, the remaining Ukrainian naval vessels were anchored at the docks of Striletska Bay "like sardines in a can."

The four frigates docked in Kurinna Harbor are anchored parallel to the shoreline, which is another problem, inasmuch as they could be susceptible to extensive damage should a storm with high winds ever hit the area.

Rumors about a move to Donuzlav have abounded since the second half of the summer, when Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, the well-respected Kyiv newspaper, reported in an August 7 piece that the move was imminent. The report came from information released by a Sevastopol-based public watchdog organization which claimed that the Ukrainian and Russian presidents had agreed to the move.

Admiral Kniaz told Dzerkalo Tyzhnia at that time that he believed the whole matter was a provocation, timed to coincide with joint celebrations by the Ukrainian navy and the Russian BSF of Navy Day, which Sevastopol celebrates on the grandest of scales.

Admiral Kniaz said that some ships would be repositioned to Donuzlav as the Ukrainian Navy undertook structural reforms, which would entail moving into a brigade-oriented organizational structure. He maintained that this did not mean that either the entire naval fleet or its headquarters would be transferred to the old Soviet base.

"The move of the Ukrainian fleet out of Sevastopol was not planned, is not planned and will not be planned," explained Admiral Kniaz in the August 7 interview. He added that, "The Ukrainian Naval Forces are located in Sevastopol on the territory of Ukraine, while the Russian BSF is located there on the basis of a lease arrangement made in an agreement of the division of the former Soviet BSF. We are at home. They are guests. So who would be first to move out?"

Admiral Kniaz pointed out that the Donuzlav port, which during the Soviet era held 60 to 70 ships plus support craft, is currently underutilized. He maintained in the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia interview that facilities there were more than adequate, an assertion contrary to press reports in Kyiv, which have called Donuzlav "neglected."

| Home Page |