Patrushev: Russia's naval nuclear shield is always on guard

Nikolai Patrushev, Chairman of the Russian Naval Board, said that he personally assess the combat capability of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Responding to reports in Western media about the scale of damage that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have caused to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the course of the special military operation, Patrushev assured that the Black Sea Fleet was as strong as before.

"There is no defeat of our fleet in the Black Sea at all, even though it is NATO specialists that coordinate Kyiv's aggressive actions in this region," he said.

Russia maintains the status as one of the world's leading naval powers, Patrushev added. He brought up the under-ice passage of nuclear-powered submarines Emperor Alexander III and Krasnoyarsk in the Arctic in September.

"Russia's naval nuclear shield is always on guard for our country. We also develop other components, forces and assets of our fleet,” the Chairman of the Russian Naval Board said.

Nuclear submarines — the Emperor Alexander III and the Krasnoyarsk — conducted their under-ice passage in the Arctic. The submarines went on their mission through the waters of six Arctic seas in difficult ice conditions and covered a distance of more than 4,000 nautical miles.

• The nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine Emperor Alexander III is the seventh submarine of Project 955/955A (codename Borei/Borei-A). Each ship carries 16 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles.
• The multipurpose nuclear submarine Krasnoyarsk is the fourth submarine of Project 885/885M (Yasen/Yasen-M). The sub is armed with Onyx and/or Kalibr-PL anti-ship missiles. All submarines of these projects were built at Sevmash Enterprise in Severodvinsk.