[9] Ukraine had been scheduling to rebuild its naval forces since 2005[10][11] by building the domestic project 58250, the first Ukrainian designed and built corvette, as well as ordering four patrol boats in 2013 from Willard Marine.

[18][19][20] The Ukrainian Naval Forces trace their origins to the Zaporizhian Sich Cossacks, who would frequently raid Ottoman settlements along the Black Sea coast.

On 22 November 1917 the whole crew of the newest and most powerful warship of the Black Sea Fleet Volya swore fealty to the Central Rada, followed soon by several ships and submarines.

In December 1917 the Black Seas Fleet squadron under Ukrainian flags led by the Russian battleship Imperator Aleksandr III and included another cruiser and three destroyers participated in the evacuation of the 127th Infantry Division from Trabzon back to Ukraine.

On 29 April 1918, fleet-commanding Rear-admiral Sablin (Russian) gave an order to hoist Ukrainian national flags over all ships in Sevastopol (the medal to the right commemorates that event).

But on 30 April 1918, only the small part of the fleet under command of Admiral Sablin, which trusted the Bolsheviks, headed for Novorossiysk and hoisted Russian St. Andrew (saltire) ensigns.

In December 1918, when naval forces of the Entente were approaching Sevastopol, Ukrainian Rear-admiral V. Klokhkovskyy commanded all ships to hoist Russian St. Andrew (saltire) ensigns.

On 1 January 1992 the newspaper Vympyel of the Black Sea Fleet Filipp Oktyabrskiy Training unit (edited by Captain-Lieutenant Mykola Huk) published the military oath and the anthem of Ukraine in the Ukrainian language.

[25] On 14 January 1992 the Governor of Sevastopol appealed to the Supreme Councils of both Ukraine and the Russian Federation, urging faster adoption of a decision on the status of the Black Sea Fleet.

[25] On 18 January 1992, the 3rd company of the divers school became the first formation of the Black Sea Fleet to pledge their allegiance to Ukraine, along with the Maritime Department of the Sevastopol Institute of Instrument Engineering.

Black Sea Fleet military personnel previously under the oath of the Soviet Armed Forces did not hasten to pledge allegiance to the newly formed state.

[27] Without informing Ukraine with which it supposed to share control over the Black Sea Fleet in a framework of the Joint Armed Forces Command, the Russian Federation was selling away several ships.

He was in the office of Ivan Yermakov accepting a proposition of the First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of Ukraine to become the commander of the future Ukrainian Naval Forces.

The current history of the Ukrainian Naval Forces began on 1 August 1992, when it was formally established by order of the President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.

The newly established Ukrainian Naval Forces received dozens of vessels (mostly obsolete or inoperative, not unlike some of those retained by Russia) and some shore-based infrastructure.

[36] In October 2013 Ukraine deployed its flagship, the frigate Hetman Sahaydachniy, as part of NATO's Operation Ocean Shield anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden.

[37] The Naval Forces of Ukraine once again deployed Hetman Sahaydachniy with an anti-submarine Ka-27 helicopter aboard to the coast of Somalia as part of the European Union's Operation Atalanta on 3 January 2014.

[citation needed] On 24 March 2014, at least 12 of Ukraine's 17 ships in Sevastopol were seized by Russia,[40][41] while the ensuing conflict saw two Ukrainian navy officers killed by Russian marines.

The 10th Saky Naval Aviation Brigade, controlling all the Ukrainian Navy's air units, managed to get a number of its aircraft airborne to bases in mainland Ukraine on 5 March 2014.

[53] Following the Revolution of Dignity and the annexation of Crimea, Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts demanding independence from the rest of Ukraine resulting in the war in Donbas.

[57] On 27 January 2017, the Ukrainian diving support vessel Pochaiv was hit by sniper fire from the Tavrida drilling platform, operated by Chernomorneftegaz, seized by Russian forces in 2014.

[58] On 1 February 2017, a Ukrainian Navy An-26 transport aircraft came under small arms fire from Russian military personnel, stationed on a drill rig, while flying over the Odesa gas field in the Black Sea.

[60][61] During the summer of 2019, Russia issued a number of temporary closures, potentially interrupting navigation and nearly blocking international shipping to and from Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine.

Since 25 July 2009, the Russia closures – announced for varying dates and timeframes – covered a total of off 120 thousand square kilometers—nearly 25 percent of the entire Black Sea surface.

[63] On 14 November 2019, during the Third International Conference for Maritime Security, in Odesa, Ukrainian Navy commander Admiral Ihor Voronchenko said that a Russian Tu-22M3 had been observed simulating the launch of a missile strike on this coastal city, Voronchenko added that Russian bombers had made several similar attempts during exercises on 10 July, conducting a virtual airstrike 60 kilometers from Odesa.

[70] The US State Department approved a Foreign Military Sales case for the supply of up to 16 Mark VI patrol boats and associated equipment to Ukraine in June 2020.

[77] In late February or early March 2022 the Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaidachny was scuttled in the port of Mykolaiv to prevent its capture by Russian forces.

[85] The Marine Corps, which also fought during the ongoing invasion and was well known internationally for the famous last stand of one of its brigades in Mariupol, was officially separated from the Navy and made an independent service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine effective 23 May 2023.

[65][88] According to former Navy Commander Vice Admiral Yuriy Ilyin, at the beginning of 2013, the fleet had 11 warships fully ready to perform complex tasks and ten aircraft and 31 auxiliary vessels fit for service.

[47] On 11 January 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia was ready to return Ukrainian military ships, aviation equipment and armored vehicles that were still in Crimea.