KIEV, November 4 (AVN) - The 61st Communard shipyard in the Black Sea port of Nikolayev has resumed completion of the Ukraina missile cruiser, the future flagship of the Ukrainian navy, Industrial Policy Minister Vasily Gureyev said on Thursday.
It is the first large ship which Ukraine is building for its Navy, Gureyev told the Military News Agency. The cruiser, which was orginally named Admiral Flota Lobov, took the water on August 1, 1990. In March 1993, when it was already 75-percent complete, it was transferred to Ukraine.
In early 1999, Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitanko announced the government's decision to complete the cruiser. However the works were halted several months later due to poor financing.
Nevertheless, Ukraine managed to find new sources of financing by selling the incomplete Varyag aircraft-carrier to a company from Macao which is planning to open an entertainment centre aboard, Gureyev said.
According to him, the carrier's transformation into the entertainment centre was effected by the 61st Communard shipyard, which helped it improve its financial performance and pay over 30 million grivnyas to the state.
Varyag was to become the most powerful Soviet aircraft-carrier, capable of carrying up to 60 aircraft at a time. By the time the USSR collapsed, it was 75 percent ready for exploitation, and its construction costs already exceeded 98 million U.S. dollars. Now it will become one of the most expensive floating entertainment centres in the world.