Its only aircraft carrier caught fire again during repairs

Russia’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, has caught fire in its home port of Murmansk.

The information was confirmed by Alexey Rakhmanov, president of the company modernizing the ship. He downplayed the incident in a statement to RIA Novosti, a publication close to the Kremlin: “It was a small emergency during repair work. The fire has been extinguished. All the fire-fighting systems worked properly. No property damage was caused and no one was injured.”

Because of the fire, 20 people were evacuated from the ship. Other sources say the incident was a “problematic” one for responders,

The Admiral Kuznetsov arrived in Murmansk for repairs and upgrades in 2017. In 2018, a 70-tonne crane fell over the ship. In 2019 another fire on board resulted in the death of one person and injury to 10 people.

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The aircraft carrier entered active service in 1991 and is based on a Kirov-class cruiser. Its sister ship, the Varyag, was never completed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was sold by Ukraine to China and became the aircraft carrier Liaoning.

Admiral Kuznetsov is totally technologically outclassed by similar vessels owned by Russia’s main rival, the US. For example, the American ones are powered by nuclear reactors, while Russia’s aircraft carrier has thermal engines that use fossil fuels.

The main type of aircraft used by this carrier is the Sukhoi Su-33.