The Project 636.3 Varshavyanka (Kilo-class) submarine hit by a Ukrainian underwater drone has been identified as B-271 Kolpino. The assessment was published by Duke BG on X.
He compared the submarine shown in a video released by the Russian propaganda TV channel Zvezda on December 16 with other publicly available images of vessels of the same class, focusing on the paint scheme on the upper section of the outer hull.
The comparison shows that different submarines have distinct paint patterns, with the exception of the Kolpino and Krasnodar submarines.
However, the Krasnodar is outside the Black Sea and therefore could not have been hit.
B-271 Kolpino is a Russian diesel-electric submarine of Project 636.3 Varshavyanka, assigned to the Russian Navy’s 4th Independent Submarine Brigade, a unit of the Black Sea Fleet. It is the sixth vessel of the project and is named after the Russian city of Kolpino.
The submarine was laid down on October 30, 2014, at the Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg.
It was launched on May 31, 2016; sea trials began on August 19, 2016, and on November 24 of the same year it was commissioned into the Russian Navy.
In 2017, the Kolpino submarine carried out combat missions in the Mediterranean Sea, launching Kalibr cruise missile strikes on targets in Syria. Since 2022, the submarine has been involved in combat operations against Ukraine, including missile launches.
At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Black Sea Fleet had six Project 636.3 Varshavyanka submarines. Not all were deployed in the Black Sea due to operations in the Mediterranean. In particular, the Krasnodar and Novorossiysk submarines are currently based in the Baltic Sea.
In September 2023, Ukraine’s armed forces struck a shipyard in Crimea with missiles, severely damaging the Rostov-on-Don submarine while it was undergoing repairs. The Kolpino, Veliky Novgorod and Stary Oskol submarines, along with the older Project 877B Halibut submarine Alrosa, are known to be based in Novorossiysk Bay.
Source: militarnyi
