"Unlucky Navy": Fire on only Russian aircraft carrier

The Russian Navy has been tinkering with the "Admiral Kuznetsov" for years: the country's only aircraft carrier is being repaired in Murmansk.

"Unlucky Navy": Fire on only Russian aircraft carrier

The Russian Navy has been tinkering with the "Admiral Kuznetsov" for years: the country's only aircraft carrier is being repaired in Murmansk. There are always setbacks. A fire breaks out again on board the Soviet-era warship.

A fire has broken out on the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's only aircraft carrier. The warship lying in the shipyard had to be evacuated, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. Authorities said the fire was quickly located and extinguished. According to official information, there were no damages or injuries. There was initially no information about the cause.

The "Admiral Kuznetsov" was launched in 1985 and officially commissioned in 1991. In 2017, after completing a mission in the Syrian war, the aircraft carrier was to be repaired and completely modernized. Since then it has been in Murmansk at the shipyard. In 2018, the ship suffered a leak when sinking from a floating dock. A crane had also collapsed, tearing a large hole in the deck.

A year later, in 2019, the "Admiral Kuznetsov" caught fire. Two people died and 14 were injured. At the time, welding work was suspected to be the cause.

The repair work has dragged on since then. The warship, which is named after the Soviet fleet admiral Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznezow, was actually supposed to set sail again in 2021. The Russian daily newspaper "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" once described the aircraft carrier as "the Russian Navy's unlucky man" because of its susceptibility to breakdowns.