Russia’s Only Aircraft Carrier ‘Admiral Kuznetsov’ In Critical Condition

The military and shipbuilders blame each other.

“Admiral Kuznetsov”, the heavy aircraft carrier cruiser of the Russian Navy, is in disrepair.

This was announced on Monday, January 9, by the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

The Russian military and shipbuilders are trying to shift responsibility for bringing the only aircraft carrier of the Russian Federation to a critical state.

“In order to continue the repair work, a decision was recently made to transfer the ship from the dry dock to one of the berths of the shipyard. However, even at the stage of preparation for the move, it turned out that the cruiser was not capable of moving under its own power at all,” the Defence Intelligence said.

In this regard, an attempt was made to move the cruiser with the help of several tugs, but this also turned out to be impossible due to the critical condition of its hull.

It turned out that the state of the vessel, in principle, does not allow launching it, since in this case it is highly likely to roll over on its side and drown.

When examining the ship's hull, it was found that the metal structures below the third deck had undergone significant corrosion, and the holds were completely filled with water.

In this regard, the officials of the 35th shipyard and the leadership of the fleet are trying to shift responsibility for the current state of affairs onto each other.

“The command of the fleet put forward penalties for one and a half billion rubles to the management of the plant for failure to meet the deadlines for repairs, and failure to fulfill the contract. In turn, the management of the enterprise published a letter stating that the plant is not guilty of bringing the ship to the current deplorable state. With a high degree of probability, the military representation at the plant, which oversaw the progress of work, was found guilty,” the intelligence service said.

The Russian aircraft carrier has been under repair for several years.

After a disgraceful tour to Syria in 2016, it was sent to dock.

In 2018, there was a crane falling emergency, as a result of which the ship received more than 50 damages, and one of the mechanics also disappeared.

In 2019, a large-scale fire broke out on the cruiser’s board due to debris accumulated there, as a result of which two people died and 14 were injured.