Ukrainian cruiser Ukrayina

The Ukrainian cruiser Ukrayina is a Slava class cruiser ordered by the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. The ship was laid down in 1983 and launched in 1990 just before the fall of the Soviet Union. Because of budget constraints work on the cruiser stopped in the early 1990s and the ship was left unfinished. In 1993 the cruiser was withdrawn from Russia’s Navy and passed to Ukraine. In 1997 Ukraine stated that it had no need for the cruiser and was willing to sell it. Russia was unwilling to buy the cruiser, China and India were then approached but showed no interest at the time. According to Ukrainian sources the Cruiser needs 30 million dollars to be finished.

Status
The cruiser sits docked and unfinished at the harbor of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine. In April 2010, sources from the Russian defense committee claimed that Russia had plans to buy the unfinished cruiser from Ukraine and in May 2010, after talks with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in Kiev, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych stated that they had come to an agreement to finish the ship together. Because of Ukraine's lack of funds, it is unlikely that the cruiser will be commissioned in the Ukrainian Navy. Many experts believe that Russia will buy the cruiser from Ukraine when finished.

On 18 November 2010, the Ukrainian defense minister Mikhail Yezhel stated that their Russian partners did in fact want to purchase the vessel, but wanted to inspect it before making a definitive commitment.

On 21 January 2011, Russian navy sources stated that Russia is only interested in obtaining the cruiser if they can have it free of charge. By early March 2011, Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdiukov stated that Russia was still waiting for an acceptable offer from Ukraine, regarding potential procurement of the missile cruiser. His Ukrainian counterpart Mikhail Yezhel responded that he would not scrap a 95% complete warship, and that the issue would be resolved in the near future.