re: #492 Jay C

I think they used to have two carriers, but ended up selling one to the Chinese, which the latter then (IIRC) had to spend nearly as much time and money rebuilding, refitting and upgrading as it would have taken to build a new one from scratch.
But then, is the Black Sea considered “deep water”? One doesn’t really need a carrier if threatening Odessa with bombing is one of their naval priorities.

They did sell the other one to China, and it’s now known as the Liaoning. And that did indeed require a massive overhaul (to the great credit of the Chinese naval engineers and ship workers that got that old scow seaworthy).