Russia's Rosoboronexport to supply China with Zubr landing craft ordered in Ukraine

"The Morye shipyard that designed these Zubr vessels is a Russian plant, so, naturally, the task is to fulfill this contract — the contract that had been signed between Ukraine and the People’s Republic of China," Sevastyanov said.

Shipyard Morye specializes in the production of high-speed dynamically supported vessels (hydrofoils, hovercrafts, vessels with air-cavities), boats, pleasure yachts and boats with hull made of aluminium-magnesium alloy.

Currently the world’s largest hovercraft, development of Zubr landing ships started in the USSR in 1978, and the first serial ship joined Soviet Navy in 1988. Its carrying capacity is 3 main battle tanks with overall mass of 150 tons or 10 armored personnel carriers weighing up to 131 tons plus 140 marines, or 8 infantry fighting vehicles with mass up to 115 tons. If not carrying armor, Zubr is capable to accommodate 366 men.

In total, 14 Zubr-class ships have been launched; only two of them remain in inventory of Russian Navy. Five ships were decommissioned , two uncompleted, and five sold to Greece for the Hellenic Navy and where they are generally used in support of Special Forces.

The Chinese Navy placed an order for four craft at a cost of 315 million US dollars. Two were built by a Ukrainian firm in Feodosiya, and a second pair of vessels were built in China under the supervision of Ukrainian technicians.