Russia launches new nuclear-powered strike submarine amid rising tension with West – World News

Russia will launch a new ultra-modern nuclear-powered submarine this week as the nation flexes its military might amid a ramping up of tensions with the West.

The state-of-the-art ‘Kazan’ will be unveiled on Friday ahead of huge military parades marking the end of the Second World War in Europe two days later, news agency Tass reports.

It comes after tensions threatened to boil over in eastern Ukraine with a Russian military build-up near its border.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and despite a peace deal brokered the following year shelling and skirmishes have continued.

Leaders across the West and Ukraine have now become worried about the Russian troops’ concentration and have urged Moscow to pull them back.

The Kazan’s development has been shrouded in secrecy and its delivery repeatedly postponed due to unspecified problems.

Its deployment is seen as a long-running campaign by Vladimir Putin to modernise Russia’s armed forces, and comes amid high tension between Moscow and the West.

The Kazan was launched four years ago and has been undergoing sea trials since September 2018. The Yasen-M vessel is equipped with nuclear-capable Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles.

Video showed the Kazan at sea, and footage of a missile firing from a sister submarine, the Severodvinsk.

TASS reported: “The timing of the transfer of the submarine to the Navy has been repeatedly postponed.

“For a number of reasons, it did not fulfil the planned programme of state tests on time.”

Director of the US Defence intelligence agency Scott Berrier last month highlighted the Kazan in outlining worldwide threats to America to the Senate armed services committee.

Yasen-M submarines starting with the yet to be completed Perm carry Russia’s new Tskirkon – or Zircon – hypersonic missile .

Putin hailed the Mach 8 Zircon as “truly unparalleled”, and has been described as his missile of choice to target American cities in the event of a nuclear conflict.

The Kazan is also capable of carrying up to 32 Kalibr cruise missiles.