【By Observer Net, Wang Yi】According to reports from British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Reuters, a foreign media outlet on October 14, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte publicly mocked the Russian diesel-electric submarine "Novorossiysk" for being forced to surface due to technical problems, saying it "returned home limping after patrol."

His statement was immediately denied by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which claimed that the "Novorossiysk" submarine surfaced near France to comply with international navigation rules, not because of a malfunction as stated by Rutte.

The incident occurred last week, with NATO stating that it had detected the Russian Navy's "Novorossiysk" submarine, equipped with "Kalibr" cruise missiles, surfacing in the sea off northwest France. Subsequently, the submarine and its accompanying tugboat were escorted through the English Channel by the Dutch Navy.

On the 13th, Rutte made a speech in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, stating that this submarine surfaced because it "was broken."

"Now, Russia has almost no naval presence in the left wing of the Mediterranean. There is only one lonely, broken submarine, limping back from patrol," Rutte sarcastically described, adding, "This is a real-life version of 'finding the nearest repair shop' from the plot of Tom Clancy's 1984 novel 'The Hunt for Red October.'"

Local time on October 13, Rutte gave a speech in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Screenshot of video

It is reported that the "Novorossiysk" belongs to the Russian Black Sea Fleet and is the first vessel of the improved "Kilo-class II" submarines. The ship was launched in August 2010 at the Admiral Gorshkov Shipyard in St. Petersburg, and officially commissioned in August 2014. It participated in Russia's military operation in Syria in 2015, and entered refit in February 2021, returning to service in April 2024.

In September this year, the "Novorossiysk" submarine was involved in a public controversy about "explosion danger." Reuters noted that an account named VChK-OGPU on the social media platform Telegram previously claimed that there was a fuel leak in the engine room of the submarine on September 27, posing an explosion risk.

The UK's Daily Telegraph reported in late September that the "Novorossiysk" submarine, which was conducting combat missions in the Mediterranean, encountered "serious technical problems," stating that "due to damage to the fuel system, fuel directly leaked into the cargo hold, and the submarine had no spare parts or qualified experts on board, and the crew could not fix the fault," issuing a "highest level alert." However, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not confirm these claims at the time.

The Russian Navy's "Novorossiysk" submarine surfaced Royal Navy

Regarding Rutte's recent public mockery of the Russian submarine's malfunction, the Russian military quickly denied it, stating that the claim of "malfunction" was "completely inconsistent with the facts." The Russian Black Sea Fleet said on the 13th that the "Novorossiysk" submarine was part of a group of submarines equipped with "Kalibr" cruise missiles, and this operation was a "planned inter-fleet transfer."

A spokesperson issued a statement via RIA Novosti, stating, "Some media reports about the 'Novorossiysk' submarine surfacing near the French coast due to a malfunction are not in line with the facts," and "according to international navigation regulations, submarines must be surfaced when passing through the English Channel."

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