A Russian propagandist poured scorn on the capabilities of the US Navy’s submarine fleet, as tensions between Moscow and Washington continue to intensify Donald Trump caused a stir in the Kremlin last week, when he ordered two US nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia.

The US President had been incensed by remarks from Putin’s close ally Dmitry Medvedev, who criticised Trump for issuing the Kremlin with an ultimatum for peace talks in Ukraine. The White House boss had originally given his Russian counterpart 50 days to conclude a deal or face punitive tariffs on oil exports, before reducing the timeline to “10 or 12 days”. Appearing on a talk show on the state TV channel Russia 1, Alexey Leonkov noted that the US Navy currently only had six of its submarines on combat duty.

He claimed that this was “less than 10%” of the total number of the US submarine fleet.

By contrast, he boasted that Russia had over 30% of its submarine fleet actively deployed on current missions, before cuttingly adding: “The Americans still can’t find them!”

Warming to his subject, the Kremlin apparatchik continued: “If you ask any US chief of naval operations or fleet commander where the submarines are now, they can only point to those at their home ports. But they still don’t know where the ones that went on missions are.”

Adding insult to injury, he reminded the TV audience that last year Russia sent the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the nuclear-powered Kazan submarine to Cuba.

The visit was seen as a show of force by Moscow and the arrival of the vessels was met with a 21-gun salute. Kremlin diplomats waved small Russian flags and took selfies against a backdrop of the harbour’s historic fortresses.

“For the Americans it was a total surprise and shock,” the Leonkov said gleefully.

“Just imagine. A submarine surfaces right next to them. Yes, it carries cruise missiles, but what kind of missiles? Zircon missiles which the Americans don’t have.

“They sent their Los Angeles-class submarine, the fastest one they had, to follow it. But it couldn’t catch or find our submarine.

“So if we start comparing whose submarines are cooler, it is clear that we are currently advancing. We have new, the newest submarines. Recently we launched the Borei-class submarine and another Project 885M submarine was also launched. The Americans cannot boast of this.”