The story of the so-called “innovative research vessel” “Pioneer-M,” hyped by the aggressor’s propaganda, has gained momentum on social media. It was built in St. Petersburg by the “United Shipbuilding Company-Technology”same (“OST-Technology”), commissioned by the illegal “Sevastopol state university.”
From 2021 to 2023, this supposedly “first unmanned research vessel in Russia,” “made entirely of Russian-made carbon fiber fabric,” was a constant fixture in the “Sevastopol media,” including a description of its river voyage from the shipyard to the occupied city.
However, the “first expedition” of the Pioneer-M, announced repeatedly in September 2023, although no longer “unmanned,” but “with elements of unmanned navigation,” was initially “shortened in length” for a supposed “complete check of all the vessel’s technical subsystems.”
And then, for some reason, the occupiers never published any results of this “long-distance voyage” to Feodosia.
The aggressor’s propaganda returned to the topic of the Pioneer-M in June of this year, claiming that the vessel would allegedly carry “archaeologists” “to explore 100-year-old submarines and the old tanker Makovey,” which sank in the area; however, no publications on the results of this voyage followed.
The current “lawsuits” between the “university” and that very same “OST-Technology” explain the situation somewhat. As it “suddenly” turned out, the “Pioneer-M”, when built, was supposed to be “a completely different class of vessel,” “with a changed navigation area, increased length, displacement, and passenger capacity,” to which the notorious “Russian Maritime Register of Shipping” gave a purely formal go-ahead.
“University” refused to pay the “additional expenses” charged to it, most likely because they were purely on paper; however, now it will be “charged by a court decision” for 10 million, and “inspired by its success,” OST-Technology has now “filed a new lawsuit,” this time for 17 million.
In this situation, it’s understandable why the occupiers aren’t risking releasing this “innovative research vessel” beyond the docking station and virtual “expeditions”: what “OST-Technologies” actually built with fake documents from the “Russian Register” is completely unclear, and there’s a significant risk that the “Pioneer-M” will quickly join the ranks of those very same sunken vessels it was supposedly supposed to “study” at sea.
