Ukrainian shipbuilding company Nibulon teamed up with French OSEA to build 20 patrol boats for Ukrainian Border Services. The contract, signed on Nov. 30, is part of the framework agreement between Ukraine and France signed in 2019.
Nibulon will build five patrol boats in Mykolaiv, a regional capital in southern Ukraine. The construction has begun and is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. The remaining 15 boats are under construction in France.
The first vessel will be deployed on Dec. 9 and delivered to the Black Sea port city of Odesa. Its crew will undergo retraining with French specialists in January. Additional ships are expected to enter service in spring.
Sergiy Slipchenko is a staff writer at the Kyiv Independent. He studied at York University in Toronto, Canada and worked as a reporter at the Kyiv Post.
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U.S. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal co-authored a bipartisan bill that would impose 500% tariffs on countries buying Russian oil, gas, or uranium.
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