The Ukrainian Navy’s flagship, the “Hetman Sahaidachnyy” frigate, was disabled and scuttled to prevent invaders from capturing it, Odesa media “Dumskaya” wrote tonight.
“Russians attacked our flagship in the semi-assembled state. The report says that they started (but did not finish) the replacement of radio electronics, fire control systems, communications, repair of the main energy system, and other works,” the report says. As our naval intelligence has established, although “Hetman Sahaidachnyy” was not combat-ready and was not a military target, the enemy still targeted it.
According to the media, there was a special operation of the Russian naval special forces planned to capture the frigate and the tugs in the navy plant's territory with a subsequent withdrawal of the Ukrainian flagship through the fairway of the Dnipro-Buh estuary.
“Then the plan depended on luck. The best scenario was to get to Sevastopol, put it on display, and announce that the crew willingly switched to the enemy’s side. At worst - drown it in the fairway and block Mykolaiv ports in addition to Azov ones,” writes “Dumskaya.”
This is why the leadership decided in advance to fill the compartments with water in case of an attack and carefully scuttle the ship to save “Hetman Sahaidachnyy.” According to the media, this was done in the first hours of aggression.
“As a result of Ukrainian special operations, [the] frigate did not receive any damages and is now resting quietly near the berth of the shipyard. It is now impossible to catch up with it or use it against Ukraine in this - hot or informational - war".
“To lift the ship now, the occupiers would need to take long measures, which is impossible during the warfare. And after the victory, the compartment will be dried, the frigate will regain buoyancy, and repair work will continue.” - the statement says.
Brief information from “Dumskaya”:
The flagship of the Ukrainian fleet was first launched 30 years ago, on March 29, 1992.
In 2014 it was repaired at the “Ukraine” shipyard, in 2017 - at the Black Sea Shipyard. However, minor repairs were not enough, and in 2018 they planned to carry out a major overhaul with a deep reconstruction, after which the ship would last at least until 2031.
The works started in 2018; they were slow and lasted for years. The flagship went to the plant only last year, as the funds allocated were far less than needed. For example, in 2022, 208 million hryvna was allocated instead of the planned 436 million hryvna.