Minister of Defense: Navy Restoring Ships Taken out of Crimea

Kyiv is taking serious measures to restore the fighting capacity of ships that were withdrawn from the occupied Crimea, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak said in an interview to NV [ed.: the text of this hyperlink is in the Russian language].

He said that almost 50% of ships were successfully withdrawn, and the decision to build the  Staff of the Naval Forces in Odesa oblast on a recently nationalized land plot has been made. "It will not just be Staff, it will be a naval base," the Minister added.

He said that the budget for these plans was ₴100 million in 2016. He also said that the fleet will be modernized, including the Hetman Sahaidachny frigate.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda