Article Posted on : - Mar 22, 2010

Ukraine's only submarine 'Zaporozhye'

MOSCOW (ITAR-TASS): Russia will help Ukraine to ensure the technical maintenance of the Zaporozhye submarine, the only one Ukraine has, a top Russian Navy official has said.

"We are stepping up our work. We received an application of our Ukrainian partners on the technical maintenance of the submarine, which they repaired and which is going to be put to use," Vice Admiral Oleg Burtsev, first deputy chief of the staff of the Russian Navy, said here on Sunday.

Relations between the Russian and Ukrainian Navies "are becoming reasonable and humane," he said.

The Zaporozhye diesel electric submarine is the only submarine possessed by the Ukrainian Navy.

It was built in 1972 under Project No. 641 (Foxtrot, under the NATO classification). Its surface speed is 16.4 knots, and the submerged speed is 16 knots. The length of the hull is 91 metres.

Previously the submarine was part of the USSR Northern Fleet, and its tactical number was B-435.

In 1990 the submarine was turned over to the Black Sea Fleet. It was adopted by the Ukrainian Navy in 1997.