NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has had a field day at Russia's expense after one of its submarines was spotted struggling in the English Channel.
Speaking in Slovenia, Rutte described the diesel-powered Novorossiysk as "a lone and broken Russian submarine limping home from patrol," cheekily contrasting the scene with the tense Cold War thriller The Hunt for Red October. "Today, it seems more like the hunt for the nearest mechanic," he added.
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The Novorossiysk, part of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, surfaced off the French coast last week, with Moscow insisting it was merely following navigation rules. Dutch authorities, however, reported that the vessel was under tow in the North Sea over the weekend, suggesting the submarine was far from fully operational.
Photographs released by NATO on 9 October show a French frigate keeping a close eye on the Novorossiysk as it moved along the Brittany coast. Meanwhile, reports on the Telegram channel VChK-OGPU suggested the submarine had experienced a fuel leak in late September, raising concerns about a potential onboard explosion.
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Despite the hiccups, the Russian Black Sea Fleet claims the submarine was on a "scheduled inter-fleet transit" after completing missions in the Mediterranean. The Novorossiysk, a 2014 Kilo-class vessel armed with Kalibr cruise missiles, is no stranger to the English Channel, and it has been spotted in British waters at least seven times over the last five months.
For NATO, it is another reminder of the alliance's need for "constant vigilance and maritime awareness across the Atlantic," as the organization stressed on X. For everyone else, the spectacle of a supposedly fearsome submarine reduced to "limping" humor has provided a rare moment of levity in otherwise tense naval waters.