U 130 HETMAN SAHAIDACHNY was a frigate of the Ukrainian Navy that was originally built at the Kerch Shipyard as a Project 1135.1 frigate of Krivak III Class. She was launched on 29th March 1992 and commissioned on 2nd April 1993. Homeported at Odessa since March 2014, she was the flagship of the Ukrainian Navy.
She was built at the Zalyv Shipbuilding yard, the ship was intended to be used by the Soviet Border Troops as KIROV. However, on 4th July 1993, the newly named HETMAN SAHAIDACHNY raised the flag of the Ukrainian Navy with a pennant number of U130.
She joined EU Naval Force Somalia (EUNAVFOR) in early January 2014 for anti-piracy operations. While she was uplifting bunkers in Greece, Russian forces seized control of Crimea, Russian state media RT falsely reported on 1st March 2014 that the ship’s crew had defected to Russia. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the commander of the ship stated that the crew had never defected to the Russians. She arrived in Odessa under the Ukrainian flag on 5th March 2014.
On 2nd April 2018 she celebrated the 25th anniversary of her commissioning while during July 2018 she participated in the Sea Breeze 2018 multinational exercises. In January 2022, it was indicated that the ship would undergo a refit and upgrade.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ship was scuttled in Mykolaiv. On 3rd March 2022, a photo emerged showing the frigate partially sunk in port with the following day the Ukrainian Defence Minister confirmed that HETMAN SAHAIDACHNY had been scuttled on the first day of the invasion to prevent her capture by the Russian forces.
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Published – Thursday 10th March, 2022.
