Built at a time when the Soviet Union was trying to project naval power on par with the West, the Admiral Kuznetsov carried enormous symbolic value. Launched in 1985 during the final years of the Soviet Union, Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, may soon be sold or scrapped, possibly ending one of the last surviving symbols of Soviet naval power.
Nearly four decades after it was built, the ageing warship now sits idle in the Murmansk area, undergoing a long-delayed modernisation.Andrei Kostin, chairman of Russia’s state shipbuilding corporation, told the Kommersant newspaper in comments published on Friday that a final decision had not yet been made, but that the aircraft carrier’s future looked uncertain. “We believe there is no point in repairing it anymore. It is over 40-years old, and it is extremely expensive … I think the issue will be resolved in such a way that it will either be sold or disposed of,” Kostin was quoted as saying.
His remarks followed a report earlier this month in the Izvestia newspaper, which cited unnamed sources as saying that work on the long-running refit and maintenance of the Admiral Kuznetsov had been suspended. Built at a time when the Soviet Union was trying to project naval power on par with the West, the Admiral Kuznetsov carried enormous symbolic value. However, after the Soviet collapse, it remained in service with the Russian Navy, eventually seeing action in the Syrian civil war, where its fighter jets launched airstrikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian naval experts and veterans remain divided over what should happen next. Some told Izvestia that the ship is outdated and no longer fits into modern military needs, while others argued that the country still needs an aircraft carrier like the Kuznetsov or a replacement to retain its blue-water naval presence.
In 2017, while returning from its deployment in the Mediterranean, the Admiral Kuznetsov passed near the British coast, billowing thick black smoke. At the time, then-UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon called it the “ship of shame,” a label that stuck with the troubled vessel.
