Authorities of Sevastopol will apply every efforts to make Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) and Ukrainian Navy place ship-repair orders at local shipyards, i.e. Sevmorzavod and Metallist .
According to UNIAN , that was said by deputy mayor of Sevastopol Sergei Savenkov in the interview to Ukrainian Navy’s TV Company Breeze .
As for Savenkov he is aware that “ Ukrainian defense ministry plans to spend about UAH 90 mln for ship repairs” , so “we’re going to petition and strive for that money to be channeled for Sevastopol” .
Sevastopol has not given ground as serious shipbuilding center despite change of owners, said the deputy city mayor. “Formerly, government was the owner, now it is private sector. Capacities of our shipyards, primarily, Sevmorzavod , are quite enough to meet demands [for ship repair] both in Ukraine and in Russia”, he added.
Savenkov concluded that “what really hurts is that in recent three years Russian Black Sea Fleet has repaired six ships in Bulgaria instead of Sevastopol”. “It is workload, taxes to city budget, social issues” , said the politician. According to him, “it is a mission of city authorities to make the money settle in Sevastopol” .
[mappress] Naval Today Staff , January 31, 2012; Image: sevastopol-history