Putin’s navy flexes muscles with 300-vessel exercises

Russia’s northern fleet in the Arctic, the Pacific and Baltic fleets, as well as the Caspian flotilla, will take part in the exercises.

President Vladimir Putin and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Alexander Moiseyev, attend the main parade marking the Russian Navy Day in Saint Petersburg at the weekend. Picture: AFP

Moscow has begun large-scale naval drills in a show of strength after a prominent Kremlin official accused the US and its NATO allies of building up their forces off the coast of Russia.

Russia’s northern fleet in the Arctic, the Pacific and Baltic fleets, as well as the Caspian flotilla, will take part in the exercises, the defence ministry said.

About 300 warships, submarines and support vessels are involved, as well as 50 aircraft and 20,000 sailors. The drills will last for several days, Moscow said.

The Black Sea fleet, which has suffered heavy losses in the war in Ukraine, is the only one of Russia’s four fleets that is not participating.

Despite having no large warships, Ukraine says it has damaged or destroyed a third of the fleet with missiles or naval drones since the start of the war in 2022.

The attacks mean Russia has been forced to redeploy the Black Sea fleet away from its long-time base in Crimea to Novorossiysk, about 400km further east.

However, Ukraine said three Russian submarines carrying cruise missiles had simultaneously entered the Black Sea for the first time.

Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for Ukraine’s navy, said they were likely to be on a training exercise. “But you should always expect danger, and we do,” he said.

Nikolai Patrushev, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said last week that Russia needed to strengthen its navy to counter what he called a threat from NATO.

“The US and other NATO countries are increasing their naval presence in the main areas of the world’s oceans, including in waters directly adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said. “Given the growing threats to our state from the West, Russia is obliged to strengthen its navy.”

He also said Russia needed to boost its navy’s ability to undertake missions in far-off regions, as well as closer to home. Russian naval ships including a frigate, the Neustrashimy, docked in Havana on Saturday.

Unconfirmed reports said the Russian ships could also visit Nicaragua or Venezuela, both Kremlin allies. The reports came before protests broke out in Venezuela after allegations of massive vote fraud at the presidential election.

Last month, a flotilla from Russia’s northern fleet that was led by the Admiral Gorshkov frigate, which is armed with hypersonic Zircon missiles, and the Kazan, a nuclear submarine, also visited Havana. The vessels passed within 50km of the coast of Florida.

The Admiral Gorshkov then docked in La Guaira, a port in Venezuela. The Russian defence ministry said the visit was aimed at “showing the flag and ensuring a naval presence in operationally important areas” of the Atlantic.

Washington said it did not see the presence of the flotilla as a threat. However, it was monitoring the vessels closely.

Putin inspected Russian warships in St Petersburg at a parade to celebrate Navy Day on Saturday. The Russian vessels were joined by the Jiaozuo, a Chinese guided-missile destroyer, and the Tabar, an Indian navy frigate.

THE TIMES