Desperate Putin secretly sends naval crew from aircraft carrier to fight 'and die' on land

A desperate Vladimir Putin has sent crew members from his only aircraft carrier to fight on the frontline in Ukraine.

The jinxed 58,000-ton Admiral Kuznetsov has failed to deploy in eight years, and may never sail again.

The length of three football pitches, it has been hit by two fires while under repair, in 2019 and 2022, yet remains the pride of the Russian navy. But now some crew members have allegedly gone missing in action in the war after being secretly redeployed on land in a sign of desperation.

They were a long way from the sea in Kharkiv region, serving in a mechanised battalion known as ‘Frigate’ within Russia's 1st Guards Tank Army, according to open source analyst Moklasen. Putin had wanted the hulking Admiral Kuznetzov to play a role in the war, but the accident-prone vessel with up to 2,000 crew is such a crock it may never sail again, some analysts believe.

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There has been no official announcement of the crew’s redeployment, which would likely be seen by Russians as a sign of acute failure in the war.

Mothers and wives of the crew are furious their men have been sent to assault groups on the frontline acting as Putin’s cannon fodder. One crewman, Oleg Sosedov, 21, who had served on the aircraft carrier is now reported to have gone missing during a Russian attack in Kharkiv on July 23.

His mother Natasha Simbirtseva has been told by fellow servicemen that he had been killed. “He has not been in touch since July 21,” she revealed. “He was seen alive on July 23, and has not been seen since. But there is a fellow soldier who confirmed that the two [dead] are my son Oleg Sosedov and Dmitry Teplukhin.”

‌The desperate mother said: “No official information has come. The commanders are not calling and are not reporting any information.”

She slammed the “complete inaction” of top brass in failing to search for missing men on they battlefield and repatriate the corpses of fallen fighters. “It's ****ed up that fighters are being sent from our only aircraft carrier to storm a village in the Kharkiv region,” she raged.

Missing too is Ivan Akenchenkov, 51, another crew member of the Admiral Kuznetsov. He was last in touch on 27 July.

A leaked message shows a desperate wife looking for her spouse Sergey Ovsienko, 30, in military unit 78987, known as Frigate, formerly from the aircraft carrier’s crew.

Her plaintiff message read: “Please help me find him. Maybe someone knows something. I would be grateful for any information.”

The flagship of Russia ’s Northern Fleet, the Admiral Kuznetsov - commissioned in 1990 - has been involved in naval convoys passing the British coast.

It can carry up to 28 planes (Su-33 and MiG-29) and 17 helicopters (Ka-52K and Ka-27), and is armed with P-700 Granit missiles.

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