Mystery over state of Russian bases housing Putin's most prized nuke subs near epicentre of 6th biggest quake on record
The 8.8 magnitude monster hit off the coast of Kamchatka just before 1am BST on Tuesday and is the sixth biggest on record.
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The port of Severo-Kurilsk flooded due to tsunami triggered by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake
Credit: Getty
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A map of the Naval base in Kamchatka
Credit: fas.org
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A Borei class submarine which can fire nuclear weapons
Credit: ckb-rubin
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It hit just 75miles southeast of Russia's key naval base in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky that houses its Pacific Fleet.
Part the complex is the Rybachiy submarine base - which builds and houses the flagship nuclear-armed Borei-class subs.
The base is hidden inside Avacha Bay and its condition remains unknown following the mega quake.
The
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Other clips caught from the peninsula showed rocks falling down cliffs following the shaking.
Information from the base is limited as the nearby town of Vilyuchinsk is closed to the public.
Vilyuchinsk builds the submarines and anyone who wants to enter needs an official permit.
But patriotic Russians have denied there will be damage as the base is made to withstand a nuclear explosion.
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One former Russian Navy officer posted on X saying: "I have no information that critical damage to the Russian Navy's naval bases in Kamchatka. I think everything is within the normal range."
Satellites have also been prevented from snapping the bases recently by thick cloud cover.
Moment surgeons continue performing surgery on patient during 8.8-mag quake
It is unclear what ships were in port at the time of the quake.
The Russian Pacific Fleet has some 600 warships and is thought to have five of the Borei class submarines.
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The bulk of the fleet is homeported in Vladivostok, 1,400miles to the southwest.
Putin will be particularly nervous about its condition given how much of his Black Sea fleet he has lost to Ukraine's bombs.
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The nuclear submarine base can house the Russian Pacific Fleet
Credit: fas.org
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The Borei II-class can be nuclear-armed
Credit: ckb-rubin
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Locals in the village of Severo-Kurilsk in Kamchatka caught video of the resulting tsunami flooding a fish processing factory on the coast.
The local port was also inundated which buildings even being moved by the force of the water.
In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy a kindergarten collapsed and several people were injured.
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The brave doctors
were
captured looking at one another as the apparatus around them begins to shake.
The Kremlin announced that no one in Russia had died from the monster earthquake.
In nearby Japan, some 2million people were ordered to evacuate from the costs with fears the tsunami could lead to a second Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Evacuations were also ordered in Hawaii with waves hitting the islands 1.5m high.
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With the threat to the US, President Donald Trump posted: "Due to a massive earthquake that occurred in the Pacific Ocean, a Tsunami Warning is in effect for those living in Hawaii.
"A Tsunami Watch is in effect for Alaska and the Pacific Coast of the United States. Japan is also in the way. Please visit tsunami.gov/ for the latest information. STAY STRONG AND STAY SAFE!"
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Rybachiy submarine base
Credit: Google Earth
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Irish Independent
11 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
In a Ukrainian maternity ward a Russian missile delivered death
The hospital was full of patients: other expecting mothers, women who had just given birth and their newborns. Diana (23) and her husband, Oleksandr (27), tried for a year for this baby – a boy they had already named Damir. When she started experiencing extreme pain in her lower abdomen, they weren't taking any chances. But early on Tuesday, Diana called Oleksandr, who goes by Sasha, in a panic. A Russian missile had just torn through the building across the street. Diana stayed on the phone as she ran downstairs for cover. Then the second missile hit. Sasha heard Diana's phone fall. The line stayed connected, but she stopped speaking. It was after 2am. Sasha, who was 25 minutes away at home in the village of Auly, rushed to the hospital by car. Someone told him two pregnant women had been wounded and a third had already died. He frantically checked two ambulances for Diana. Then he saw a body on the ground near the entrance, covered with a sheet. Diana's green slippers were on the feet poking out from underneath. Sasha collapsed next to her and her pooling blood, which he can still smell, and started to scream. There had been no time to try to save the baby. 'We were waiting for a son and then in one minute, the ... Russians,' he said, using an expletive, his voice trailing off as he described the horrific scene. 'And they were killed.' Russia launched the missiles at Kamianske, a busy city in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, hours after US president Donald Trump announced he would give Russia 10 to 12 days to agree to a ceasefire before imposing new sanctions. Locals said the strikes were probably targeting the first building that was hit, a former medical dispensary that they said was well-known as a makeshift military base. Soldiers used it, they said, despite the maternity hospital working next door. The presence of the hospital also did not stop Russia from firing missiles indiscriminately into the centre of the city. Washington Post reporters found several military uniforms and piles of supplies in the remnants of that damaged building, which sat about 220 yards from the hospital. A sign on the door warned visitors to turn their phones on airplane mode, a common rule at military sites. A pile of dusty drone controllers sat outside. A handful of soldiers at the scene on Thursday, mostly in civilian clothes, denied it had been used as a base. They said it was a warehouse for non-lethal supplies. Only one said he was there when the missiles hit. Ukrainian military officials did not respond to requests for comment. Last Friday, the Russian defence ministry bragged that between July 26 and August 1, it struck several high-value military targets, including warehouses and drone workshops. Under international conventions on war, military personnel are required to avoid placing military objects near civilian infrastructure or in heavily populated areas. The conventions also ban attacks that place civilians at disproportionate risk of harm. 'I wouldn't dare bring her to the maternity ward if I knew there were soldiers near there,' Diana's mother, Lina Dranko, said after her funeral. 'I would have brought doctors to our home.' Sasha and Diana met in 2019 – he just home from his mandatory military service, she a new and pretty face on a visit to her mother's native village. After weeks of sharing walks and kisses, Sasha told her he wanted to celebrate one month of dating. 'We're dating?' she replied. It was October 25. The next year, he proposed on the same day – the ring a perfect fit because he had tested it on his little finger, which he knew was the right size. On September 25, 2021, they legally married. When Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, they both felt moved to perform a church wedding to consecrate their vows. The local priest told them they failed to complete mandatory rituals, including a brief fasting period. 'We said, 'Come on, it's war',' Sasha recalled. The priest gave in, and they had their second wedding ceremony the next day. As war raged across Ukraine and Russian forces advanced toward the Dnipropetrovsk region where Sasha and Diana lived, the couple tried to maintain a simple village life. Their parents helped them buy a small house, which they started renovating. Diana worked in the local grocery store, where she befriended soldiers posted to the area. Sasha continued work at the nearby steel factory. They weighed the risks of having a baby during wartime against their dream of a family. The dream won out. Six months ago, they cheered and cried when two pink lines appeared on a rapid test. They tucked the stick away in a plastic envelope for safekeeping. 'It was the happiest moment of our lives,' Sasha said. Diana began filming her belly as it grew – smiling for the camera as she ran her hands over her bump. On July 31, Diana's family placed her hands over her bump for the last time. She lay in a wooden coffin in the centre of the same room where she had filmed herself dreaming of motherhood. Sasha pressed his face to hers. Her mother, Lina, bent over her belly. Other relatives – her sister, Karina, her father, Anatolii, her nephew, Daniil – took turns caressing her face. They whispered to her and Damir, wishing them farewell. The car seat, the wooden crib, the tiny mattress decorated with the words 'It's a boy' sat in the next room. Four men carried the coffin outside, where hundreds of people were waiting, weeping, holding each other. A priest started Diana's funeral rites. The crowd followed to the cemetery. In the last moments before they covered the coffin, Lina wailed. 'I don't want to say goodbye.' 'You dreamed of having this baby.' 'I should have protected you.' They covered Diana and lowered her to the ground. The cross listed her name, birthday and death date. 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His little sister Viktoriia, who is 20, leaned into his side, wrapping her arms around him.
Irish Independent
11 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Donald Trump's envoy to meet Vladimir Putin ahead of deadline for Ukraine peace deal
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Irish Independent
11 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
The Irish Independent's View: Nuclear threats show leaders are playing a dangerous game
Washington had set a deadline of Friday for Russia to agree to end the Ukraine war or face new sanctions. Asked what Vladimir Putin could do to avoid the sanctions, Mr Trump answered: 'Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.' Mr Trump's previously conciliatory posture towards the Kremlin has taken on a menacing tone Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down the significance of Mr Trump's announcement about moving the submarines, saying: 'We do not believe that we are talking about any escalation now.' He noted that 'everyone should be careful about nuclear rhetoric', adding: 'There can be no winner in a nuclear war.' The US president's frustration at being strung along for months by Putin is clearly at breaking point. There is no sign of an end to fighting in Ukraine. Yet upping the ante in the nuclear stakes is hardly the answer. Since the Cold War, the two powers have walked a tightrope, knowing one stumble could mean Armageddon. A consensus held that as such a war could never be won, it could never be countenanced. But the balance of such reasoning seems threatened by a new recklessness in word, if – so far – not in deed. Mr Trump's previously conciliatory posture towards the Kremlin has taken on a menacing tone in response to Moscow's continuing stonewalling and defiance. But it should be remembered that so much has changed since the Cold War, with a third nuclear superpower, China, to be considered. The more players there are, the higher the chances of someone tripping over somebody else's feet. The idea of everyone keeping everybody else in check has been further complicated by a number of other countries also holding arsenals for deterrence. But it has been three-and-a-half years since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Despite the sanctions, Putin saw his economy grow by more than 4pc last year. The thinking now in Washington is to use secondary sanctions – hitting countries such as India and China, which are buying their energy from Moscow. These, after all, are the revenues funding the war in Ukraine. Another deadline this week could end with either a breakthrough or another missed opportunity So far, Mr Trump's see-sawing between promises and threats has come to nothing. Another deadline looming this week could end with either a breakthrough or another missed opportunity. In Kyiv, president Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to the US and the EU to impose secondary sanctions on Moscow's energy, trade and banking sectors. So far, Mr Trump has shown no real commitment to forcing Putin's hand. Mr Witkoff's visits to Moscow have also yielded precious little. Putin has leveraged his nuclear arsenal to project invincibility. But what happens when the roulette stops being rhetorical? There is far too much at stake for this to become a contest over who blinks first.
