The pride and joy of Vladimir Putin’s Northern Fleet appears doomed to never set sail again, with its crew being redeployed to the meat grinder in eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin has sunk millions of rubles into trying to resuscitate the fortunes of the 39-year-old Admiral Kuznetsov.
Not only is the vessel the flagship of Russia‘s Northern Fleet, but it is also the only aircraft carrier Putin’s navy has.
The ship was supposed to set sail from the port in Murmansk for the first time in eight years in the spring.
However, it remains firmly tethered to its moorings in its northern port and seems destined for the scrap heap.
And now some of its 1,500 crew find themselves drafted into the ranks of the military, as Putin’s generals desperately hunt high and low for fresh cannon fodder for the frontlines in Ukraine.
The open-source analyst Moklasen believes the sailors have had to form a so-called “frigate” mechanised battalion, which has been attached to the 1st Guards Tank Army.
Forbes reports that at least one of the sailors, Oleg Sosedov, has gone missing after the Russians carried out an attack in Kharkiv on July 23.
His mother Natasha Simbirtseva has been told by fellow servicemen that he has been killed.
She said: “He has not been in touch since July 21. He was seen alive on July 23 and has not been seen since.
“But there is a fellow soldier who confirmed that the two [dead] are my son Oleg Sosedov and Dmitry Teplukhin [another seaman].”
The distraught mother added: “No official information has come. The commanders are not calling and are not reporting any information.”
Admiral Kuznetsov has been plagued by misfortunes and accidents ever since it was launched on the high seas.
It has completed just seven patrols since launching in 1985 and commissioning into the Soviet Navy six years later.
During its most recent deployment off the coast of Syria in 2016, two of its fighter jets crashed in quick succession.
Two years later in October 2018, Kuznetsov suffered serious damage when the drydock PD-50 sank while the carrier was aboard for repairs. Then, in December 2019, a fire broke out on the ship itself.