Two Gyurza-type artillery motor boats enter service with Ukrainian Navy

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Ukrainian Naval Forces restore and bolster fleet capacities as well as plan upgrade and exercises based on NATO standards.

Ukrainian Naval Forces keep bolstering their combat capacities. Two small-size Gyurza-type armored artillery motor boats named “Berdyansk” and “Akkerman” entered in service with the Ukrainian Naval Forces, said Colonel Dmytro Hutsulyak, spokesperson of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine at a press-briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “Over the last year Ukrainian Naval Forces restored their combat capacities and deployed tactical operations units “Mariupol” and “Pivden” (south),” said Colonel Hutsulyak. The year 2017 has been designated the year of the Ukrainian Naval Forces. Restoring the fleet as well as bolstering its capacities is thus a priority for the General Staff and the Reforms Committee.

Integrated state surveillance system is being created by U.S. experts based on the technical capacities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The system is to monitor above- and underwater situation in basins of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov as well as in basins of the Dnipro and Danube rivers. “At the first stage of the project information systems of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and of the State Border Guard Service will be integrated into a common system. As the next step all state agency are to be connected to the joint network by the end of the year,” the Defense Ministry spokesperson said.

This year Ukrainian Armed Forces will be also trained to take part in the NATO security operation Sea Guardian. According to Colonel Hutsulyak in course of the operation the Ukrainian Naval Forces will monitor commercial shipping in the pre-defined areas of the Black Sea as well as will exchange information with the UK-based Allied Maritime Command of NATO on illicit activities of the sea carriers.