Nuclear-carrying submarines are extremely rare in the Baltic Sea as far as is known.
Shortly after 4 pm on Thursday, the 154 meter long nuclear submarine was south of Gedser. It can be compared to a Swedish submarine that is 60 meters long and is powered by diesel electric motors.
The passage into the Baltic Sea took place in surface position through the Great Belt on Thursday morning.
"We can confirm that a Russian submarine of the Oscar class passed through Danish waters today," replies Lars Skjoldan, head of press at the Danish Defense Headquarters in an email to SVT News.
The Swedish Armed Forces also follow the movements of the submarine. You cannot comment on its armament.
- It has the ability to carry cruise robots. But what it has, I don't know. We have control over what is going on. We follow the business. We always do that, says Major Kristina Swaan, on-duty communicator in the Armed Forces.
The reactor-driven submarine belongs to the Russian North Fleet on the Kola Peninsula and is usually armed with 24 "Granite" cruise robots, according to previous information in the news agency Tass when the submarine Orel (Eagle) sailed into the Baltic Sea in the summer of 2018.
As far as is known, it was the first time a Russian nuclear-powered submarine with cruise robots that could be equipped with nuclear weapons trained in the Baltic Sea. The submarine then brought four nuclear warheads, according to previous information to SVT.
Now a submarine of the same class is on its way into the Baltic Sea again. It is unclear if it is Orel (Eagle) even this time. The submarine is likely on its way to the large fleet parade that the Russian Navy carries out each year at the end of July in Saint Petersburg and in the Baltic base Baltic fleet. But it can practice before and after the show.
“The Danish Armed Forces cannot comment on the reason for the passage through Danish waters. Nor can we comment on any armament, ”replies Lars Skjoldan SVT News.
The atomic boat "Orel" was hit by a major fire in 2015 when it lay in a dry dock at the shipyard in Severodvinsk.
Orel is a sister ship to the Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank in 2000 after a torpedo exploded aboard and the entire crew of 118 people perished. Kursk was also an Oscar II class submarine.
At the end of March 2020, the Barents Observer reported that the crew on board Orel had been quarantined after a person on board tested positive for corona.