Konstantin Olshansky" – the USSR/ Ukraine project 775 large landing ship

"Konstantin Olshansky" (Ukrainian: «Костянтин Ольшаньський»), formerly known as BDK-56 - Project 775 large landing ship. It is a multi-deck, flat-bottom landing ship, designed for operation in inland seas, with a for-deck and an extended stern superstructure. Named in honor of the Hero of the Soviet Union Konstantin Olshansky, commander of the 68th paratroopers' detachment, that liberated the city of Mykolaiv from the Nazi invaders. Built in 1985 at the “Verf Polnocna” shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, it was transferred to the 39th Marine Division of the Navy, stationed in Donuzlav. From 1985 to 1996, it was part of the USSR Black Sea Fleet, performing landing training missions and serving in the Mediterranean Sea. In late 1993 - early 1994, together with other ships of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet, the ship participated in the evacuation of refugees from the conflict zone in Georgia and Abkhazia. According to the ship's doctor Mikhail Korpan, during the evacuation the ship managed to evacuate more than 4,000 people, most of whom suffered from gunshot wounds, and the condition of many refugees was critical. During the evacuation mission, the “Konstantin Olshansky” and another ship, the BDK-69 (project 1171), were attacked by several armed cutters of the Abkhazian Navy. The commander of the “Olshansky” decided to deviate from the course and prepare the guns for fire, but the neighboring ship MDK-123 (project 1232.2 “Zubr”) rushed to the rescue and sank one of the cutters, firing at it from an AK-630M automatic cannon, thus repelling the enemy forces. On March 22, 2011, the ship arrived in Libya, where a civil war was raging, to evacuate Ukrainian citizens. The ship was carrying 193 people, including 85 Ukrainians and 108 citizens of 14 other countries. On April 4 the ship arrived in Malta, where it disembarked 79 people. On April 11 it arrived in Sevastopol, carrying citizens of Ukraine and the CIS countries. Following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, on the night of March 6, 2014 the ship, along with six other warships of the Ukrainian Navy, was blocked in Donuzlav Bay due to the sinking of several decommissioned ships by sailors of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, including the large guard ship “Ochakov’. On March 24, 2014 the Russian military seized the “Konstantin Olshansky’, and the St. Andrew's flag was raised on the ship. Ukrainian media reports state, that the crew turned off the propulsion system and electronic equipment. In October 2014 the “Konstantin Olshansky” was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol. In 2015 Russian representatives expressed their desire to return the ‘Konstantin Olshansky” to Ukraine along with other ships remaining in Crimea, citing the achievement of peace in the Donbas as a condition. As of 2022 the ship has not been returned to Ukraine, but it is not officially included in the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

A medium-size ship model, intended only for medium-experienced and experienced modelers. The model is well designed and richly detailed. There is no color stock, the textual instruction in Ukrainian, Polish, English and German are medium-size, quite well explaining the entire process of gluing the model and complementing the excellent, informative and easy-to-read graphical instruction in a timely and appropriate manner. Many details are printed double-sided. An interesting solution is that all details do not have black contour lines.