July 31, 2024: In northwest Russia, near one the Russian naval bases in the Kola Peninsula on the Barents Sea a 7,700-ton destroyer, the Admiral Levchenko was damaged in June by an engine fire in one of its four gas turbine engines. Russia denied this, but the Levchenko was delayed for a month from leaving its base for planned operations. The cause of the problem was a malfunction in one of the Ukrainian manufactured engines. The most visible evidence of this was fire and smoke in the engine room. Some of the smoke was visible and the destroyer didn’t move for a month as repairs were made. How complete the repairs were was unknown.

The Levchenko was built during the 1980s, when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine had long been a center for manufacturing engines for commercial and navy ships. That continued after Ukraine became independent. The cooperation stopped after 2014 when Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine. This forced Russia to quickly build factories that could manufacture the marine engines that previously came from Ukrainian manufacturers. Worse, Ukrainian engineers were no longer available to help maintain the engines on the Levchenko. This was a contributing cause to the fire that broke out in the Levchenko engine room.

The Levchenko is one of the few large warships still active in the Russian navy. Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia has not been able to afford, much build, large warships. All Russian shipyards could produce were smaller coastal patrol ships. For example, the Levchenko was built in Poland, which during the Soviet period was semi-independent from Russia. The Poles had, and still have a good reputation as shipbuilders. None of this work is done for Russia anymore. While the Levchenko was built in Poland, the gas turbine engines came from a Ukrainian manufacturer.

The Levchenko has a crew of 300 and a top speed of 65 kilometers an hour. Max range was 19,000 kilometers at a cruising speed of 50 kilometers an hour. Its speed and range after the engine fire is unknown. The ship is armed with eight anti-submarine missiles, two anti-submarine rocket launchers, eight anti-submarine torpedo launchers, 64 anti-aircraft missiles, two 100mm deck guns, and four 30mm multi-barrel autocannon for defeating missile attacks or other close range threats. Levchenko also carried two helicopters that operate from a helipad in the rear of the ship and are stored in an onboard hanger.