Eight vessels from the Crimean Sevastopol took part in the event, and the special vessel Kommuna is part of the fleet, the Forbes server writes.
According to analyst HI Sutton, the Kommuna rescue vessel is 110 years old and one of the oldest operating ships to date.
The commune first entered active service in 1915 under the name Volkhov and functioned as a rescue vessel for the Baltic fleet of the Russian Navy. She was active during both world wars and during the Russian Revolution. He still serves in the Russian Federation Navy, writes The Drive.
In 1922, it was officially renamed Kommuna, which corresponded to the political orientation of Russia at the time, and this name remained so even after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
According to The Drive, Kommuna took care of the submarines, including their repairs, refueling and changing their crews, and participated in rescue missions.
During World War II, she participated in the defense of Leningrad, rescuing vehicles from sunken supply ships. He received a medal for this activity.
In 1967 it was rebuilt and relocated to the Black Sea. The vessel was also equipped with rescue submarines.
The ship has a specific shape, because it is a catamaran with a double hull. The construction of the double hull of the ship was originally intended to provide space for docking submarines and rescued objects. During the modernization, its central part became a place for smaller remote-controlled submarines and also for parts of the wreckage that were lifted into the ship.
According to analyst Sutton, there are reportedly deep bathyscapas AS-28 (DSRV) at Kommuna, which are designed for immersion to a depth of 1000 meters.
Satellite images from the American company Maxar Technologies showed that the cruiser was located northwest of the Crimean port of Sevastopol on April 10. Its current location cannot be determined via satellite due to a large storm over the Black Sea, CNN warned. Kommuna has long been based in Sevastopol and was able to immediately set out on a rescue mission.
The cruiser Moscow sank after being hit by Ukrainian missiles Neptune. The ship subsequently caught fire, which caused the ammunition to explode and severely damaged the vessel.
Russia’s Defense Ministry says 396 sailors on the ship were evacuated, one was found dead and 27 remain missing. These data cannot be independently verified and it is not certain whether these numbers correspond to reality. An attempt to pick up the bodies of dead sailors may be part of the operation.
It is not clear what will be part of the rescue operation. According to experts, it is not realistic for the Russians to try to pick up the entire ship. Foreign media described the cruiser Moscow as the best equipped and most important ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It was armed with surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, artillery and anti-ship weapons, the BBC wrote on its website.
There have already been claims that at the time of the sinking were on board the ship nuclear warheads for anti-ship missiles P-500 / P-1000. However, there is no real evidence for these claims, writes The Drive server.
Analyst Sutton adds that the Oceanographic reconnaissance ship Lagoda, owned by the Russian Navy, could also be used to support the operation.
The Russians approach the rescue with great caution. They are afraid of the Ukrainian anti-ship missiles Neptune, which have a range of up to 280 kilometers and could easily hit rescue vessels.
At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities consider the wreck of the sunken Russian cruiser Moscow to be part of Ukraine’s underwater cultural heritage. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced this on Facebook.
“According to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, all signs of human activity on the Black Sea floor within the limits of our state’s economic activity are the property of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense wrote.
War in Ukraine
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