Putin loses his only aircraft carrier as cash-strapped Kremlin can't afford £3.2bn bill

Russia has confirmed Vladimir Putin is to lose his only aircraft carrier vessel in huge humiliation for the dictator.

The Kremlin is reportedly so cash-strapped and hit by sanctions to foot the astronomical £3.2billion cost to repair what is left of the fire-damaged, 58,000-ton Admiral Kuznetsov.

Head of state-controlled VTB Bank, Andrei Kostin, said: “We believe that there is no point in repairing it. It is already over 40 years old, and it is an extremely expensive item. I think the issue will be resolved in the sense that it will either be sold or disposed of.”The bank 

manages the Kremlin-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation [USC] which has failed to repair the hulking vessel in seven years. Kostin this week held talks with dictator Putin and USC boss Andrey Puchkov in Severodvinsk.

A Kremlin pool journalist Andrei Kolesnikov said: “We recently saw it near Murmansk: it seems that they have already started to dismantle it…”

It comes after Putin’s massive “ship of shame” – the length of three football pitches – was hit by two fires while under repair, in 2019 and 2022, causing millions of pounds worth of damage. Its crew were long ago sent to fight in Ukraine

One crewman, Oleg Sosedov, 21, who served on the aircraft carrier, was last year reported to have gone missing during a Russian attack in Kharkiv.

It comes after Vladimir Putin's "favourite newspaper" started telling its readers exactly when and how World War Three will start.

Komsomolskaya Pravda [KP] newspaper is actively telling people to get ready for nuclear war with the West. The publication argues Western politicians and military figures have threatened war with Russia.

Russian military expert Andrei Klintsevich said: "They [the West] need a big war to dismember Russia into small independent states and get free access to our resources."

Independent news outlet Agentsvo said the report in KP was "intended to prepare Russian public opinion for a potential war with NATO".

Klintsevich also accused the West of mobilising its military-industrial complex, mining borders, and building defences.Speaking to KP, he said the West was aiming to provoke Russia before launching a direct assault around 2028-2030.

Klintsevich then demanded Russia now stage a nuclear weapons test in the Arctic – the first since the end of the Cold War – in order to deter the West.