Russia’s sole aircraft carrier and naval flagship catches fire amid repair work
Misty Severi
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A small fire broke out on Russia’s only aircraft carrier Thursday while it was undergoing repair work, according to Russian state media.
The Admiral Kuznetsov, a flagship of the Russian Navy, was in the process of being repaired at a port in the city of Murmansk when it caught fire. But the blaze was quickly extinguished and there were no injuries, Aleksey Rakhmanov, the head of the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation, told Tass.
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“All the relevant fire systems worked normally. There was no damage and no casualties,” Rakhmanov said, according to Axios.
Multiple delays have interrupted the ship’s restoration and overhaul process, including a separate fire that broke out in 2019. That fire killed one person and injured 12 others. The year before that, a crane crashed onto the deck of the ship after a floating dock began to sink. The crash caused unspecified damage.
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The restoration process began in 2017 and was expected to finish last year. However, the ship is now expected to return to its fleet in 2024 if no other unexpected delay slows it down again. The overhaul is expected to cost a total of 300 to 350 million rubles to complete, according to Naval News, roughly the equivalent of $4.3 million to $5.1 million.