The pride of the Ukrainian fleet - the frigate "Hetman Sagaidachny" was flooded by the crew
The flagship of the Ukrainian Navy "Hetman Sagaidachny" was flooded by the crew. The goal is to prevent the capture of the ship by Russian troops. The frigate was launched to the bottom in shallow water: masts with radar antennas, a running bridge and a 100-mm gun turret on the upper deck of the ship remained sticking above the water surface. The sailors were clearly in a hurry, because at the time of the opening of the Kingston, the line of contact was quite far from the place of flooding – in the port of the city of Nikolaev. Perhaps the decision was made to avoid the destruction of the ship by a missile and bomb attack of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security under the Government of Ukraine reported on Facebook, the UNIAN agency in Telegram with reference to the People's Deputy of Ukraine Alexey Goncharenko about the death of the flagship of the fleet.
"The flagship of the Ukrainian Navy "Hetman Sagaidachny" was flooded in the port of Nikolaev. It's necessary. After that, we will quickly raise and restore it," the Center reported.
According to Goncharenko, this was done on February 24. On this day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a special military operation in a neighboring country. Putin stated that the objectives of the operation were to protect the population from "genocide", "demilitarization" and "denazification".
According to the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, by that time, several hundred objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine had been hit during a special military operation. "2,396 objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine have been destroyed. Among them: 82 control points and communication centers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 119 S-300, Buk-M1 and Osa anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as 76 radar stations," Igor Konashenkov, an official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, said at a recent briefing. According to him, 827 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 84 multiple rocket launchers, 304 field artillery and mortars, 603 units of special military vehicles, as well as 78 unmanned aerial vehicles were also destroyed.
Among the objects of military infrastructure, the almost completed base in Ochakov was destroyed, where NATO ships were to be based in the future. In the first days of the operation, it was leveled with an air-bombing strike and thereby "reset" the long-term plans of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for a presence on the southern coast of the Black Sea. Sagaidachny could also become another target.
Self-flooding made it possible to avoid unnecessary human casualties, and the crew managed to leave the ship in an organized manner, taking with them personal belongings, documents and, possibly, expensive radio equipment units. To go to sea and give battle to a significantly superior firepower to the Russian squadron maneuvering south of Odessa – such a development of events was not even considered. And that's right, because the "Sagaidachny", although classified as a "frigate", is actually a patrol ship specially designed for conducting the border service. There are no anti-ship or anti-submarine guided missile systems on it – only the obsolete short-range Osa-MA2 air defense system (up to 15 km). The Sagaidachny could only try to hit the Russian ships with 533-mm torpedoes and artillery, represented by a 100-mm cannon and a pair of 30-mm anti-aircraft guns.
If not for a special military operation, the frigate could have become a more formidable combat unit. At the end of 2021, the Military Department of Ukraine signed an agreement with the state enterprise "Research and Design Center of Shipbuilding" for the repair and modernization of the ship. It was planned to allocate UAH 436 million for this. The work was to be carried out at the shipbuilding and ship repair plant "Nibulon" (the former Liman plant) in Nikolaev, where "Hetman Sagaidachny" arrived from Odessa on July 4, 2021. Prior to that, the ship was defended for a long time in Odessa at the Ukrainian Navy base in the Practical Harbor. However, after arriving in Nikolaev, repair work on the ship was never started, and the "Hetman Sagaidachny" was "temporarily" moored to the wall of the virtually inactive former Black Sea Shipyard. The ship was brought into port and partially disarmed (for the period of factory work, part of the weapons and ammunition will be taken ashore), but they did not have time to start work.
In theory, the frigate could receive anti-ship missiles "Neptune" (similar in characteristics to the American "Harpoon" and the Russian X-35 complex "Uranus"). In Soviet times, engineers of the Kiev design bureau "Luch" worked on the development of this machine. The engine was to be made at the Zaporozhye MotorSich, and the final assembly of the product was to be done at the Kharkov Aviation Plant. The collapse of the USSR put an end to the project. Nevertheless, Ukraine inherited all the project documentation and, oddly enough, did not lose or sell it in the "dashing" 90s. Although back in the noughties, the rocket was lit up in the catalog of military-technical products of North Korea, in which, in addition to any Soviet heritage in the form of a TA-57 field universal phone (the one that requires turning the battery charging handle before the call), the R-17 Scud missile complex (in the export classification it is customary to call "Elbrus"), a car was also presented, like two drops of water similar to the X-35.
Currently, the Ukrainian "Neptune" has passed fire tests and recently entered service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Its peculiarity is that it is the first fully unified missile, the use of which is possible both from surface ships, coastal missile systems, and aircraft carriers. The missile's homing head does not emit a signal in search of a target, but receives it. This is a passive principle of radar, in which it is impossible to detect an attacking target machine. In the 90s, the Russian version of the rocket was even planned to be delivered to the United States. The Americans wanted at least 100 Russian products in order to install such computers on their UGM-84 Harpoon of McDonnell Douglas. But the deal did not take place. Now Ukrainian military expert Oleg Zhdanov claims that after the appearance of the "miracle weapon", the Pentagon will again show interest in such a possibility. According to him, it is impossible to resist the missile of the complex, because it is "practically silent". The commander of the Ukrainian naval forces, Rear Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, noted that he intends to form three divisions of "Neptunes" for deployment on the Black Sea coast of Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, these missiles have been used in the shelling of civilian vessels passing near Odessa. Apparently, the Ukrainian military mistook them for Russian Navy warships. The shells caught up with the targets, as a result there are casualties and destruction, but, fortunately, not a single ship sank. Although against the background of the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, defending themselves in residential areas and hiding behind civilians as a human shield, it is hard to believe in this.
As for the sinking of the Hetman Sagaidachny, then, according to the version of the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet (1996-1998), Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, expressed in an interview with RIA Novosti, the frigate was flooded for the sake of blocking the fairway. So that Russian landing craft could not use it in case of an attempt to capture Nikolaev from the sea.
The local shipyard once represented the largest center of surface shipbuilding of the Soviet Union. In particular, all domestic heavy aircraft carriers, including the flagship of the Russian Navy Admiral Kuznetsov, were built here. Over the years of "independence", the company gradually lost its capacity and qualified personnel. And, as we can see by the example of Sagaidachny, it has actually been reduced to the level of a ship repair plant.
The further fate of the ship remains unclear. Technically, it is not difficult to lift it, and it is also possible to repair it. However, this is economically unprofitable: the frigate was built 30 years ago (launching in 1992), is outdated mentally and physically. For all the years of service in the Ukrainian Navy, it was actually used as a training one. Fortunately, the ships of the basic project 1135 were distinguished by good seaworthiness, reliability of machines and mechanisms. The ships of this class belong to the patrol ships in the USSR Navy and the Russian Navy, according to the NATO classification - the Krivak I class frigates. The ships of Project 1135 had several subtypes and upgrades: 1135M, 11352, 11353.
Starting in 1968, they went into a large series at three shipyards: the Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad, the A.A. Zhdanov Shipyard in Leningrad and the Gulf Shipyard in Kerch. The Baltic Shipbuilding Plant "Yantar" in Kaliningrad was the first to master the construction of these ships. In terms of their size and extensive nomenclature of onboard weapons and equipment, they significantly surpassed all the guardships previously built at the Yantar plant, so the start of construction was preceded by the modernization of the plant and the preparation of a new slipway. Eight ships of Project 1135 were built at the PSZ. In total, 32 ships were built for the Soviet Navy in the basic anti-submarine version, and the Ladny and the Inquisitive remain part of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy.
Taking into account the high seriality and good seaworthiness, in the 1980s it was decided to make an additional batch for the KGB border troops of the USSR according to the modified project 11351 "Nereus". The abandonment of the Rastrub-B anti-submarine missile system and the second 100 mm cannon made it possible to install a more powerful sonar, a hangar for the Ka-27 helicopter and equip the runway. The shipyard "Gulf" in Kerch has assembled several such ships, and the "Eagle" and "Dzerzhinsky" continue to serve as part of the Coast Guard of the Border Service of the FSB of Russia.
The last of the eight corps was transferred to the Ukrainian Navy, where he received the name "Hetman Sagaidachny". The ship joined the Ukrainian Navy on April 2, 1993 after brief tests. The naval flag of Ukraine was raised on it on July 4, 1993, and since then the ship, classified as a frigate, has become the permanent flagship of the Ukrainian fleet.
At the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch, which came under the control of Ukraine in 1992, the reserves for two more ships of project 11351 with factory numbers 209 "Red Pennant" (the hull was almost formed on it) and 210 were transferred. In August 1992, they received the Ukrainian names "Hetman Bayda-Vishnevetsky" and "Hetman Doroshenko". They were planned to be completed for the Ukrainian Navy (the formal laying of the first was made on December 27, 1992), but Ukraine did not have the funds for this, and in 1995 both ships were removed from construction, and their designs were sold for scrap. At the same time, the unfinished "Hetman Doroshenko" was gradually taken apart for the sake of maintaining the "sistership" in good condition – "Hetman Sagaidachny".
Initially, the Hetman Sagaidachny carried the tail number 201, since July 1994 - U 130, and after the transition in 2018 to the classification of ships according to the NATO standard - F 130. For almost 28 years of active service, Sagaidachny has completed a large number of sea voyages, visited dozens of ports around the world, including the USA, Great Britain, Portugal, UAE, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Israel, etc.
The events of 2014 led to the relocation of the Ukrainian Navy from Sevastopol to Odessa. By that time there were already several missile boats there. Despite dozens of cases of desertion, the crew of the "Sagaidachny" managed to be preserved. Sea voyages continued, but their frequency was negatively affected by the refusal of the current Kiev regime from military-technical cooperation with Russia. Despite repeated repairs in Odessa and Nikolaev, the technical condition of the ship was deteriorating. The problem was partially solved by attracting volunteers who collected funds across the country to maintain the flagship in good condition. So, in December 2015, they handed over the Furuno FAR-2117/27 radar to the crew. The corresponding action was carried out by the "Come Back Alive" movement.
Vladimir Karnozov
