Ukrainian command ship Donbas

Donbas (Ukrainian: Донбас) is a former Soviet repair ship that was converted to a command ship of the Ukrainian Navy, Project 304 (NATO reporting name: Amur). She was built on Szczecin Shipyard in Poland in 1969 for the Soviet Navy and entitled PM-9. "PM" is a Russian abbreviation for a repair ship (Russian: Плавучая мастерская, Plavuchaya masterskaya), and literally means a floating repair shop.

Donbas supervises a joint parade of the Ukrainian Navy and the Black Sea Fleet on Navy Day in 2012

U500 Donbas at Sevastopol Bay, July 2012
History
Soviet Union
Name: Krasnodon (formerly PM-9)
Commissioned: 11 November 1969
Decommissioned: Transferred to the Ukrainian Navy in the 1990s
History
Ukraine
Name: Donbas (formerly Krasnodon)
Commissioned: 1990s
Badge:
General characteristics
Displacement: 5,520 tons
Length: 122 m (400 ft 3 in)
Beam: 17 m (55 ft 9 in)
Draft: 4.63 m (15 ft 2 in)
Speed: 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement: 145

The ships of this company were considered the most durable, they were actively applied in military campaigns since the early 1970s.

As a result of the distribution of the Black Sea Fleet, PM-9 changed her name to Krasnodon. In 2001, she was renamed the Donbas. During her service in the Ukrainian Navy, the ship has repeatedly participated in international exercises, as well as in local military parades and cruises. On 11 November 2007, the ship was caught in a hurricane near Sevastopol, but suffered minor injuries and remained intact due to the assistance of the Russian tug MB-160.[1][2]

The ship Donbas marked her fourth decade of naval service on 4 December 2009. On this occasion, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine allocated on 6 December 2010 around 4 million UAH for the ship reconstruction. On 25 January 2011, she successfully passed the first stage of sea trials.

On 20 March 2014, the ship was captured by the Russian Navy during the Crimean crisis.[3] On 17 April 2014, she was transported from Sevastopol to Odessa by the Ukrainian tug Hennadiy Savelyev.[4] On 4 September 2016, the ship was damaged by fire at Odessa.[5]

The search and rescue vessel Donbas (A500) and the sea tug Korets (A830) got underway from Odessa on September 20 and transited the Kerch Strait on September 23, escorted by a number of Russian Navy units.

Ukrainian Navy Gyurza-M-class artillery boats Kremenchuk (P177) and Lubny (P178) got underway from the port of Berdyansk to meet the two vessels as they entered the Sea of Azov.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko congratulated the crews of the two ships on a successful transit on his Facebook page, adding that they would become part of a newly-created base in the Sea of Azov.[6]

"The rescue ship Donbas and the tugboat Korets have arrived in Mariupol. Two small armored artillery boats, the R177 Kremenchuk and the R178 Lubny [which were previously redeployed to the Azov Sea and set out to meet the other two ships on September 23] arrived together with them," as stated at the Ukrainian Military Portal.[7]

See also

References
  1. "Navy cut in the living: the Black Sea as a shared legacy of the Soviet Union". survincity.com. 25 July 2012. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  2. "В Севастополе во время шторма пострадали боевые корабли России и Украины (ФОТО)" (in Russian). Novy Den. 13 November 2007. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  3. "У Криму три кораблі України підняли Андріївський прапор Росії". Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 20 March 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  4. "Звільнений корабель «Донбас» прямує до Одеси" (in Ukrainian). Espreso TV. 17 April 2014. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  5. Voytenko, Mikhail (4 September 2016). "Ukrainian Navy auxiliary ship DONBASS fire, Odessa". FleetMon.com. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  6. "Ukraine establishing Sea of Azov base as first navy ships enter through Kerch Strait". NavalToday.com. 24 September 2018. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  7. "Two Ukrainian ships that entered Azov Sea arrive in Mariupol". Interfax-Ukraine. 25 September 2018. Retrieved 2019-04-12 – via Kyiv Post.
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