Ivan Papanin sailed off

Putin’s navy tests armed combat icebreaker

A tugboat pulls the combat icebreaker Ivan Papanin, named after a Soviet polar explorer, out of the port of St. Petersburg.(Bild: TASS)

Under the code name Project 23550, the Russian navy has been researching armed icebreakers for several years. Now, for the first time, such a combat icebreaker has set sail: the ship named Ivan Papanin left the shipyard in St. Petersburg, where it was built, for its first test voyage.

While the Russian Black Sea Fleet suffered some heavy losses in the invasion war against Ukraine, Putin's navy in the north is arming itself with a new type of ship. The first ship in a small fleet of combat icebreakers, developed as "Project 23550", left the port of St. Petersburg a few days ago for its first trial run. The purpose of the ship: to secure Russia's military interests in the strategically important Arctic and to build up a threat against the USA and Canada. The two NATO states have nothing comparable in their fleets.