Russian navy ship sinks in Black Sea after collision with livestock-laden freighter
by The Associated Press
All 78 personnel from the Russian frigate are safe after the collision punched a hole in the ship's starboard side
MOSCOW—A Russian naval reconnaissance ship sank April 27 after colliding with a freighter off Istanbul, but all crew members were rescued, the Defence Ministry said.
Turkey’s coastal safety authority said all 78 personnel from the Russian frigate Liman were safe, as were all crew aboard the freighter, the Togo-flagged Youzarsif H. The freighter was carrying livestock.
The Defence Ministry said a hole was punched in the starboard side of the Liman during the collision, which occurred around midday Thursday about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of the Bosphorus Strait. The cause of the collision wasn’t immediately clear.
The Liman was part of the Black Sea Fleet. The Interfax news agency reported that it spent much of the winter in the Mediterranean off the coast of Syria and returned to the Black Sea to monitor NATO exercises in February.
The rescued Russian sailors were all aboard a Turkish rescue vessel and would be picked up by a nearby Russian cargo ship, the Ulus Star, the ministry said, without specifying the number of crew members. It said the cargo ship would deliver the sailors to the home base of the Black Sea Fleet, which is on Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
