💥🇷🇺 Russia is a nuclear icebreaker mega power and no one else even comes close: ex-Royal Navy officer

Russia’s ability to field all eight of its nuclear icebreakers simultaneously and in the winter harshest conditions is an “impressive” feat, 27-year Royal Navy veteran, ship captain and Telegraph contributor Tom Sharpe concedes.

🟠 “Russia has the world’s only operational nuclear icebreaker fleet: four cutting-edge Project 22220 vessels…two older Arktika-class giants…and two shallow-draught Taymyr-class ships. Backed by around 40 conventionally powered icebreakers, Russia’s nuclear icebreakers are unique and far more powerful than anything the West can muster,” Sharpe wrote in his latest analysis

🟠 Russia’s icebreaker fleet gives it the ability to keep oil and gas shipments flowing, and its ambitious Northern Sea Route maritime route open for more of the year, “cutting transit times to Asia and bypassing chokepoints like Suez,” the observer says

🟠The capabilities, combined with Russia’s broader Arctic projects, serve as “economic oxygen” for the country, contributing to GDP, and assisting in the swing of oil and gas shipments toward Asia amid Europe’s embargoes

🟠 “No one matches Russia’s nuclear fleet,” Sharpe emphasized. “Finland, Canada and Sweden have capable conventional breakers; China is building an icebreaker fleet…but lacks nuclear ones for now. Given the importance of the Arctic to the US it is surprising how much they are lagging: the US Coast Guard has just two ageing heavy icebreakers,” the observer complained

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt