Severomorsk News

A British destroyer has shadowed two Russian warships as they passed through the English Channel for the second time this year, the Royal Navy said.HMS Diamond sailed from Dover as the destroyer Severomorsk and cruiser Marshal Ustinov passed by on Tuesday.“This is routine business for the Royal Navy and the second time my ship’s company have undertaken such an escort duty this summer,” said Commander Ben Keith of HMS Diamond.In January, Royal Navy frigate HMS Westminster was sent to monitor four Russian vessels as they passed close to British waters.

Northern Fleet divers salvage weapons and equipment from the American ship “Thomas Donaldson”, which sank after a German submarine attack outside Murmansk in 1945. Divers from the Northern Fleet’s search and rescue department in 2014 started an operation to bring weapons and equipment from the American vessel to the surface. Last year a Sherman tank was raised. It has been restored and is now displayed at a museum in Safonovo outside Severomorsk, barentsobserver.com reports. The Liberty-class ship “Thomas Donaldson” was part of an allied convoy and carried more than 600 tons of cargo as part of the Lend-Lease program. In1945 the ship was hit by a German torpedo and sank by Kildin Island outside the Kola Inlet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin put the nation’s northern fleet on full alert in the Arctic Ocean this week, as the U.S. and several Eastern European NATO countries conduct a series of military exercises near Russia's border. According to the ministry, the operational zone of Russian warships during the exercises will be expanded to several areas of the Norwegian Sea. The order issued on Monday allows for the mobilization of 38,000 military personnel, 3,360 pieces of equipment, 41 ships, 15 submarines and 110 airplanes, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. This was followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to bring the country’s Northern Fleet to full alert in a snap combat readiness exercise.

A squadron of Russian warships entered the English Channel on Friday but a NATO official dismissed a Russian media report that they were there to conduct military exercises. Russian news agency RIA quoted the Northern Fleet as saying its vessels, led by anti-submarine ship Severomorsk, had passed through the Strait of Dover and were now in international waters in the Seine Bay to wait for a storm to pass. "While it is anchored the crew are undertaking a series of exercises on how to tackle infiltrating submarine forces and are training on survival techniques in the case of flooding or fire," RIA quoted the Northern Fleet as saying in a statement. The Russian navy could not reached for comment and the Defence Ministry declined to comment on the report.

A naval task force from Russia’s Northern Fleet is heading to the eastern Arctic, taking the Northern Sea Route (NSR) reports Ria Novosti, citing a spokesperson for the fleet. Led by the heavy nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky, the task force, which includes the large amphibious assault ships Olenegorsky Gornyak and Kondopoga and a variety of support vessels, has left its Severomorsk base and has entered the Barents Sea. The warships will take the Northern Sea Route to the Novossibirsk Islands and carry out a number training missions…

The 83-year-old British man was homeward bound from the Azores Islands when his yacht became disabled through storm damage. The crew of the Russian warship Vice-Admiral Kulakov responded to the lone yachtsman's MAYDAY call from his yacht Elixir in the North Sea. The yachtsman was given medical aid, telling the Russian sailors his yacht was pounded by a strong gale more than ten days ago while traveling to the UK from the Azores Islands. The yacht engine and electric equipment were disabled, and the main sail was torn. The Russian sailors brought hot food and drugs to the yacht. Ship technicians repaired the yacht's electric equipment and started up its engine.

The convoy consisted of merchant ships flying flags of Malta and Liberia, the NF spokesman Capt 1 Rank Vadim Serga told ITAR-TASS. "Crew of destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov replenished supplies delivered by tanker Ivan Bubnov on May 25. After that, a new convoy will be formed at an assigned point in the Red Sea to be escorted along the 'safety corridor' again", Serga said. Destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov left NF main base Severomorsk on Apr 6. Throughout the deployment, the ship has covered over 9,000 nautical miles.

according to a Russian Northern Fleet spokesman. The Norwegian frigate Fritdjof Nansen moored in the Barents Sea port of Severomorsk, the home base for the Russian Northern Fleet, earlier this week as its crew took part in Victory Day celebrations in the nearby port of Murmansk and joined a military parade with some 700 Russian soldiers and officers. Russia and Norway have carried out the annual Pomor naval drills since 2010 to practice interoperability in the environmentally fragile Arctic area. The exercises include firing of live artillery rounds at simulated surface and aerial targets, anti-submarine warfare drills, anti-piracy operations, and search-and-rescue missions.

In quickly evolving events, Russia's navy on Monday was desperately trying to rescue more than 100 sailors trapped in a crippled nuclear-powered submarine on the bottom of the sea. Although it was initially reported that the vessel was forced down by flooding in the front of the vessel, the latest reports from the navy say that the submarine has marks of a "big and serious collision" -- possibly with a foreign submarine. The navy's chief said he was pessimistic about the chances of a positive outcome to the incident in Arctic waters. He did not make clear whether he was referring to the fate of the crew or the submarine, which was commissioned just five years ago.

Rescuers mounted a desperate undersea mission on Tuesday to evacuate 116 sailors trapped in a stricken nuclear submarine on the sea floor before the oxygen ran out. Reuters reports said a first attempt to dock a rescue capsule to the sunken submarine had failed due to heavy storms and a second had been launched. Dwindling oxygen supplies on the vessel were pushing rescuers to speed up their efforts. The crew of the Kursk, one of Russia's most modern submarines, have been able to communicate with the outside world only by tapping on the hull since an accident at the weekend forced them to shut down the reactor and let the craft sink to the bottom. But a Navy spokesman said the tapping was growing fainter. "The signal is getting weaker.

More than 100 Russian sailors are reportedly trapped in their nuclear-powered submarine on the sea bed off northern Russia, after technical faults apparently forced them to shut down the nuclear reactor, the navy said. Reuters reported that Russia's independent NTV television station said the cause of the accident was flooding of the torpedo tubes and front section of the submarine Kursk, and said a power shutdown might lead to problems with oxygen supplies. The navy could not be contacted to confirm the details of the accident. The head of the navy's press office, Igor Dygalo, said earlier that unspecified technical faults had forced the Kursk to settle on the sea bed after training exercises in the Barents Sea, most of which lies in the Arctic circle north of European Russia.

The task of clearing debris from the wreck of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk will be completed today, the Russian Navy said. The Kursk sank in the Barents Sea last August with the loss of all 118 crew. "Work on clearing the debris from the vessel will be completed this afternoon as planned," a spokesman for Vice-Admiral Mikhail Motsak, who is coordinating the recovery operation, told Reuters from aboard the warship Severomorsk. An international salvage team aboard the high-tech dive support ship Mayo conducted the clean-up operation using robots controlled from the deck. The support ship will leave for the Norwegian port of Kirkenes later on Wednesday to swap cleaning equipment for cutting gear, the navy spokesman said.