Desperate Russian Submarine in Need of Rescue off Coast of Europe
A Russian Navy submarine suffering serious technical failures has surfaced off the coast of Brittany, France, prompting NATO surveillance and deepening embarrassment for Moscow’s deteriorating naval forces.
The diesel-electric submarine Novorossiysk (B-261), part of the Black Sea Fleet, was forced to surface after a critical malfunction in its fuel system while on duty in the Mediterranean. According to the Russian investigative outlet VChK-OGPU, fuel has been leaking directly into the vessel’s hold, creating a major explosion risk. With no spare parts or qualified specialists onboard, the crew reportedly began pumping the contaminated fuel out to sea — a desperate act underscoring both the severity of the malfunction and the dangerous state of Russia’s fleet.
NATO’s Naval Command confirmed that a French Navy frigate was dispatched to monitor the submarine after it appeared off the coast of Brittany. Western officials say the vessel remains afloat but “clearly in distress.” The Novorossiysk is now believed to be heading north toward Kronstadt, near St. Petersburg, with its arrival expected around October 21.
The Novorossiysk is a Project 636.3 “Varshavyanka”-class submarine — part of the 4th separate submarine brigade of the Black Sea Fleet. Laid down in 2010 at the Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg and commissioned in 2014, the vessel was once advertised by Moscow as a stealth, next-generation platform. But the current crisis shows the extent of the fleet’s decline.
A source cited by VChK-OGPU said that during this deployment alone, the submarine had suffered ten separate technical failures, including breakdowns in navigation, software, and periscope systems. “Any competent specialist will tell you that the submarine, although it ‘proudly’ stays afloat, is incapable of performing any combat missions in such a condition,” the source said.
This incident is part of a wider pattern. The Black Sea Fleet has sustained multiple non-combat losses in recent months — many concealed from the public. In early August, the small missile ship Vyshny Volochyok of the 41st Brigade collided with a civilian tanker in Crimea’s Temryuk Bay while performing “combat tasks.” Internal reports, leaked to VChK-OGPU, show the Navy tried to disguise the collision as damage from a Ukrainian drone strike to avoid accountability. Photographs later confirmed that the ship had sustained serious structural damage inconsistent with the official version.
Military analysts see these repeated failures as the result of systemic corruption, under-maintenance, and the exodus of qualified personnel following Western sanctions. “Russia’s fleet is running on improvisation,” one European naval expert said. “The Novorossiysk surfacing near France is a literal image of a navy coming apart.”
For Moscow, the sight of a crippled submarine under NATO observation off the coast of Europe is more than a technical embarrassment — it is a symbol of Russia’s eroding naval power, where even vessels designed to project strength now limp home leaking fuel and guarded by others.
