Western intelligence uncovers secret russian project to deploy nuclear missiles underwater - media

Russia may be carrying out a secret military project called Skify ("Scythians"), which involves deploying ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads on the seabed. This is according to a joint investigation by German broadcasters WDR and NDR.

According to the journalists, Western intelligence services from the NATO alliance have been keeping the russian ship "Zvezdochka," based in Severodvinsk, under close surveillance for some time. Intelligence agencies believe that it, along with the special submarine "Sarov," is being used for a secret project to deploy nuclear missiles in special silos or containers at a depth of several hundred meters.

NATO officials speculate that the "Skif" missile—a modification of the "Sineva" missile, which is typically deployed on russian submarines—was developed as part of this project. Such seabed launchers are capable of remaining underwater for years in standby mode and launching missiles with a range of several thousand kilometers on command.

The report notes that russia may have been working on this technology for several years, and the first tests could have taken place earlier. If such a deployment is confirmed, it will pose serious challenges for NATO, as systems hidden on the seabed are extremely difficult to detect and destroy in the event of a conflict.

At the same time, analysts note that there is currently no officially confirmed data on the actual combat deployment of the "Skif" complex, and most of the information is based on leaks and intelligence assessments. Similar concepts for hidden seabed systems were developed as far back as the Soviet era, but at that time they remained at the research and development stage due to technical limitations in communications and security.

As a reminder, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense announced the start of joint exercises with russia on the combat use of nuclear weapons and nuclear support.

Earlier, a russian ship carrying a nuclear cargo for Pyongyang may have been secretly blown up by a NATO country.