Ukraine Navy Bases

The Western naval base of Naval Forces of Ukraine in Odessa would receive the status of the main base of the Ukrainian fleet in April 2014. The city possesses suitable infrastructure for basing of Naval Forces. After the March 2014 events in the Crimea, 12 ships and boats of the Sevastopol and Yalta groups of sea protection relocated to Odessa. The Kerch group was transferred to Berdyansk.

The squadron of the Ukrainian Navy river boats will be based in Odessa in the Practical Harbor of the Western Naval Base of the Navy. This information was announced by the media center of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in January 2013. Ukrainian army has never had any river forces in its structure. According to the acting commander of the Western Naval Base, Captain second rank Igor Zaytsev, the new squadron would be dedicated to serve at frontier rivers, lakes, coastal salt lakes, as well as for external raids in coastal waters. The plans were that in 2013 it would get first two armored artillery boats from "Gyurza-?" project, laid in October 2012 at the “Lenin Kuznitsa” plant in Kyiv, and the training of crews would be commenced at the same time. And 2014 would be the year for completion of the squadron formation, completed with new boats of this type. Captain third rank Roman Kodymsky has been appointed as the squadron commander, having certain successful experience of commanding the squadron of escort and provision vessels of the Western Naval Base.

Balaklava was an underground ship repair factory, a gloomy and grand underground’s development that began in the mid-1950s. The harbor of secret objects was called the “Pipe” or the “Black Hole” by the locals. Stalin approved the comprehensive plan of defense from nuclear weapons of the principal industrial and defense objects of the country. The Soviet leader personally reviewed and endorsed the plan of the Balaklava underground submarine repair factory. When completed in 1961 it was given the codename Objekt 825. It was decided not to lengthen the dock in order to not extend the deadlines. That’s why the underground factory was able to accept only the middle-sized submarines, and when the large-sized ones began arriving at the Black Sea Fleet, the shelter started to lose its significance. In May of 1994, the last Russian submarine was led out of Balaklava, accompanied by farewell honking. The city, and the port, and the subterranean harbor of submarines were fully transferred to under the Ukraine's jurisdiction.

Retained by Ukraine

Seized by Russia