By Pascal Ibe
Claim
An X user, @rkmtimes, shared an image combination of Russia’s President and a submarine alongside the claim that it was spotted near the UK recently.
The X post with the image of a submarine reads, “BREAKING 🇷🇺🇺🇦🇬🇧🔥 First time Russian NUCLEAR submarine spotted near London, UK.
The post garnered over 452k views and more than 2k reposts with 14k likes.
Verification
A simple Google Image Reverse Search showed that this picture was from June 2024.
The Sun confirmed in 2024 that the sighting of the submarine in 2024 sparked fears that the Russian president is making good on his promise to “punish” the West for funding Ukraine with a £ 40 billion loan using frozen Russian assets.
The former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in a ‘secret’ meeting and was told the RAF surveillance reconnaissance aircraft had pinpointed the sub’s movements near Britain’s naval base in Faslane.
The submarine was said to have been tracked close to Scotland, but without crossing territorial waters.
NATO leaders were said to be concerned that the vessel might be scouting for weak points in the perimeter.
The Daily Express reported that the state-of-the-art Russian submarine has since arrived in Havana, Cuba, for a five-day visit, with Western leaders seemingly downplaying the deployment, which is just 100 miles from US territory.
It is expected to go on to the Commonwealth country of Guyana, where the Navy patrol ship, HMS Trent, has already been deployed.
Verdict
This claim is MISLEADING. Vladimir Putin’s 13,800-tonne sub Kazan was spotted off the coast of Scotland on 5th June, 2024, not 2025. By RAF Poseidon P8 anti-submarine aircraft.
