PIER PRESSURE

Tsunami Damages Putin’s Nuclear Submarine Base in the Pacific

The facility houses most of the nuclear submarines in Russia’s Pacific Fleet.

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake that rattled Russia’s eastern coast this week sent waves crashing into one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prized military installations, his Pacific Fleet’s nuclear submarine base, according to satellite imagery obtained by The Telegraph. The Rybachiy base, located in the Kamchatka Peninsula and home to the majority of Russia’s strategic nuclear submarines, appears to have sustained damage when the waves hit within 15 minutes of the quake. Imagery from Umbra Space, captured Thursday morning, shows part of a pier at the facility possibly torn from its original position. While it appears unlikely that any submarines were docked at the time, the base is key to Putin’s undersea nuclear arsenal—one capable of launching missiles that can strike deep into the U.S. and Europe. The incident comes as NATO has grown increasingly alarmed over the Kremlin’s aggressive submarine activity and long-range strike capabilities. Russia has been working to improve its submarine fleet since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2023, Putin vowed to ramp-up production of nuclear-powered submarines, declaring they would “ensure Russia’s security for decades to come.”