They've still got subs and smaller boats though, right? Don't let your guard down with those guys, they aren't to be trusted.
inb4 Dave tells us how they’re totally gonna win against NATO with 80 year old tanks and zero aircraft carriers 😂😂😂👌
(Edited 42 seconds later.)
@previous (Erik !Q5TvoOcBHU)
Russia set to scrap its last remaining aircraft carrier
The Admiral Kuznetsov, laid up since 2018, is symbolic of the decline of the Kremlin’s once mighty navy
Marc BennettsJuly 28 2025, 1.50pm BST
Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in the English Channel.
The Admiral Kuznetsov sailed through the English Channel in 2016. Its black smoke comes from the fuel it burns
DOVER MARINA/EPA
The Kuznetsov was being repaired in a naval base in Murmansk on Russia’s Arctic coast
SEMEN VASILEYEV/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES
The report comes as the competing demands on the Russian military-industrial complex were illustrated over the weekend when its main Navy Day parade in St Petersburg was cancelled due to security fears, as Ukrainian drone strikes continue to target strategic sites across the country.
Despite the cancellation, President Putin travelled to St Petersburg and boarded the frigate Admiral Grigorovich, which the Kremlin claimed helped fight off a previous drone attack near Sevastopol in Crimea. He also visited the Naval Cathedral on the island of Kronstadt. In a video address to members of the navy, Putin praised their role in the war and vowed to expand Russia’s naval power.
He said the ongoing July Storm drills, involving 150 warships and 15,000 personnel across four seas, showed Russia’s reach.
Not taking part in the drills, however, is the Kuznetsov, which was launched in 1985 in Mykolaiv, a Black Sea city now part of Ukraine. The carrier has been plagued by deadly accidents and mechanical failures. The incident off the coast of Kent in 2017 came after it spilt an estimated 1,000 tonnes of oil off the southern Irish coast in 2009 while refuelling.
Vladimir Putin at a flag-raising ceremony for the Knyaz Pozharsky submarine.
President Putin met sailors for Navy Day last week
ALEXANDER KAZAKOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The vessel, with a crew of more than 1,500, did not take part in combat operations until 2016-17, when it supported Russian forces in Syria. However, problems with its propulsion system meant it had to be accompanied by a tugboat. Equipment issues also led to two Russian warplanes, a MiG-29K and a Su-33, crashing into the sea while attempting to land on the carrier. The pilots were rescued.
At least two workers were killed and about a dozen were injured in two separate accidents on the ship during repairs in 2018 and 2019. The refit schedule for the completion of repairs has been pushed back on a number of occasions amid allegations of embezzlement, with costs rising to at least 60 billion roubles (£556 million). Defence chiefs may now decide that the money could be better spent on Russia’s war in Ukraine, Izvestia said. There are growing claims that the Kremlin has depleted its stockpile of Soviet-era weapons on the front in Ukraine and is increasingly reliant on Chinese and North Korean munitions.
“The Russian navy does not need aircraft carriers in the classic form,” said Admiral Sergei Avakyants, a former commander of Russia’s Pacific Fleet. “The aircraft carrier is already a part of a bygone era. [It is] a huge, expensive structure that can be destroyed in a few minutes with modern weapons. The future lies with robotic systems and unmanned aircraft.”
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However, though there has been a dramatic shift in modern warfare on the sea, Russia’s international rivals still operate aircraft carriers and are, like China and the US, still producing new warships that can carry a fighter strike force. Even France, which, like Russia, only operates one carrier, the ageing and nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, has said this will be replaced with a new vessel, which could eventually cost up to €8 billion. Britain, meanwhile, has recently built two new carriers, both of which have been beset by problems.
Some Russian naval analysts said that Moscow needed at least one aircraft carrier and that it would be better to sell the Kuznetsov for scrap and build a new vessel from scratch. Such an undertaking would cost £2 billion at the very least. “A modern navy is impossible without air support. Ships need their own airfield, especially when operating far from the shore,” said Ilya Kramnik, an analyst at Russia’s Institute of World Economy and International Relations.
A decision to decommission the Kuznetsov before the construction of a vessel to replace it would leave Russia as the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council without an operational aircraft carrier.
Russia’s navy has suffered a series of spectacular losses since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Its Black Sea fleet has been decimated by Ukrainian drone and missile attacks.
At least 24 Russian vessels operating in the Black Sea have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the war, according to British defence intelligence. These include the Moskva, a missile cruiser that was once the pride of the Russian navy, which was sunk in 2022.
Besides the Kuznetsov, the Soviet Union built six other helicopter and aircraft carriers. None of them are now in service with the Russian navy, having been scrapped or sold. The first, the Kiev, was decommissioned and sold to a theme park in China in 1996. It is now a luxury hotel docked in a port in Tianjin. In 2004, the Admiral Gorshkov was sold to India and converted into the INS Vikramaditya after upgrades that cost about £1.4 billion.