In August 2000 "Pyotr Velikiy" was in the Barents Sea to oversee the largest naval training exercise in a decade, since the fall of the Soviet Union. The ship was to be the designated target of the Oscar-II class submarine K-141 "Kursk", and was conducting evasive maneuvers when communication with "Kursk" was lost. The submarine was later found to have suffered catastrophic torpedo detonations, resulting in the loss of all 118 crew members. "Pyotr Velikiy" guarded the area where the submarine sank during the subsequent salvage operation in 2001.