35 Ukrainian servicemen of the Naval Forces (Navy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces) successfully completed training on the mine countermeasure ship Zr.Ms. Makkum in the Netherlands. About this reported press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands.
These sailors will become the crew of another mine countermeasures ship, Zr.Ms. Vlaardingen, which the Netherlands plans to transfer to Ukraine. The training of the crew lasted more than two months and took place with the support of NATO allies. The Netherlands provided a training ship, while other Allies provided instructors and translators. Technical personnel were trained separately at the Naval Academy of Belgium.
Ships Zr.Ms. Vlaardingen and Zr.Ms. Makkum, together with the mine countermeasures vessels that Ukraine will receive from the UK and Belgium, will form the basis of the country’s future mine countermeasures forces.
According to the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands, Zr.Ms. Vlaardingen was decommissioned in the spring of 2024, and Zr.Ms. Makkum is in October. Both ships, which served for 35 and 40 years respectively in the Royal Netherlands Navy, were engaged in mine clearance missions in the North Sea. So far, the exact dates of the handover of the ships to Ukraine have not been announced.
