russia’s only aircraft carrier in emergency state – UA intelligence

russia's military and shipbuilders are trying to shift responsibility for bringing the only russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, to critical condition.

The press service of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence reports this on Telegram.

"russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft carrier cruiser, is in an emergency condition. Currently, the ship is at the 35th ship repair plant (Murmansk, russia)," the message says.

To continue repair work, russians recently decided to transfer the ship from the dry dock to one of the docks of the ship repair plant. However, even at the preparation stage for moving, it became clear that the cruiser was incapable of moving under its own power.

Therefore, an attempt was made to move it with the help of several tugs. However, this also turned out to be impossible due to the critical condition of the ship's hull.

According to intelligence data, ship repairmen warned that the condition of "Admiral Kuznetsov" in principle does not allow it to be launched because it is highly likely to tip over on its side and sink.

When the diving teams examined the ship's hull, it was found that the metal structures below the third deck had suffered significant corrosion. The holds are entirely filled with muddy water, which makes a detailed examination of the ship from the inside impossible.

Ukraine's Defense Intelligence also reported that the officials of 35 ship repair plants and the leadership of the russian fleet are trying to shift responsibility for the current state of affairs on each other. It is impossible even to establish who exactly decided to move the ship.

The command of russia's fleet imposed fines of one and a half billion rubles on the management of the plant for the disruption of repair deadlines and non-fulfillment of the contract. In turn, the management of the enterprise published a letter stating that the plant was not to blame for bringing the ship to a deplorable state.

According to the intelligence, with a high degree of probability, the military representation at the plant, which supervised the progress of the works, will be found guilty. According to the available data, there is not even an approximate time frame for the completion of the repair of "Admiral Kuznetsov" and its return to service.

As reported, on December 22 last year in russia, a fire broke out on board the only aircraft carrier cruiser of the russian Navy, Admiral Kuznetsov, which was undergoing repairs at the docks of the Zvezdochka plant in Murmansk.