The vessel's last reported activity was in the sea trials of SSN Krasnoyarsk in September 2022. While it was reported in July 2022 that the vessel had been terminated, no official confirmation was expected until the end of the year. At first, the submarine sailed in surface position, but it has now submerged underwater, Norway’s Joint Headquarters tells the Barents Observer. Dmitry Donskoy had a displacement of around 53,000 tons and was modernized and re-equipped in 2002 with the 'Bulava' missile. As the nuclear submarine’s propulsion was restored in time to avoid a larger accident, the Russian navy ships continued north into Skagerak, the waters between Denmark and Norway’s southern tip. On Wednesday morning, Ukrainian bomber crews fired a volley of Storm Shadow or SCALP cruise missiles at the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol, in southern Crimea.

It was the first of six Akula-class Northern Fleet submarines laid down at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk on the White Sea which were commissioned in the 1980s.Īt 574 feet long, Dmitry Donskoy's status as the world's largest submarine was overtaken by the 608-feet-long Belgorod nuclear submarine, which was commissioned in July 2022. In 2021, Russia's state news agency Tass reported that the vessel would stay in service until 2026. There had been speculation for months about the fate of the submarine, which had been launched in 1980 and whose NATO reporting name was Typhoon. The Russian Navy has confirmed it has decommissioned its nuclear-powered strategic submarine Dmitry Donskoy, which formed part of Moscow's formidable Cold War weapon system.

Russian submarine missing