Russians have been unable to save the tugboat “Captain Ushakov” that sank in St. Petersburg for almost a year
6.05.2026 - 15:05
Analysts attribute the inability to repair the ship to structural problems and the degradation of Russian shipbuilding.
The tugboat “Captain Ushakov”, which sank on August 9, 2025 near the berth of the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, still remains in a semi-submerged state. This was reported by military-political observer Alexander Kovalenko.
According to him, the cause of the accident could be numerous changes in the design and problems with the stability of the fifth and sixth-laying vessels of this type.
The tugboats of project 23470 were built at the Yaroslavl Shipbuilding Plant under a contract from the Russian Ministry of Defense from 2014. The lead ship of the series – “Sergey Balk” – was laid down in October 2014, and the second – “Andrei Stepanov” – in July 2015. They were planned to be handed over to the fleet in 2016–2017, but due to sanctions and problems with components, construction was delayed.
As a result, the main tug had to be completed in occupied Sevastopol at the Perseus ship repair yard, where work was completed only in 2020.
The “Captain Ushakov” itself was laid down in 2017, launched in 2022, and at the end of 2023 was transferred to the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg for completion and testing. It was there that the ship sank.
According to Kovalenko, throughout the existence of Project 23470, changes were constantly made to it, which is why the tugs of the series differ significantly in structural elements and technical documentation.
Kovalenko calls this project an illustrative example of the problems of Russian shipbuilding after decades of degradation of the industry. According to his assessment, even the construction of the auxiliary fleet is being carried out by Russian shipyards with great difficulty and is accompanied by critical defects.
Also, as USM wrote, the day before, the Defense Intelligence special forces struck three boats and a supply ship of the occupiers in Crimea.
