In a first public statement about the fatal incident on board of a Russian deep sea research vehicle, President Vladimir Putin said that it's a “great loss,” adding that 2 heroes of Russia and 7 high-ranking officers were killed.
“It is not an ordinary vessel, it is a research vessel,” the president said while meeting with the Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu in the wake of the tragedy.
Putin referred to the vessel’s crew as “highly qualified professionals” and called the deaths of 14 sailors a “great loss for Russia and our fleet.”
He specified that two of those who died in the fire on board the research vessel were previously awarded the nation’s highest honorary title – the Hero of Russia – while seven were navy officers in the rank of 'captain 1st class' (Russian equivalent to NATO OF-5/US O-6 captain rank).
Putin ordered Shoigu to personally travel to Severomorsk, where the research vessel is currently stationed, to oversee the investigation and to report to him upon return.
On Monday, a Russian Navy’s deep sea research vessel caught fire during a planned operation aimed at exploring the seabed in the Russian territorial waters.
The Russian Investigative Committee launched an investigation into the incident. The Russian Navy also initiated its own probe led by the Navy head, Nikolay Evmenov. The cause of the fire remains unknown so far.
Heroic Russian naval officers sacrificed their lives, saving their colleagues and civilians, as they battled flames on board a deepwater research submersible in the Barents Sea, the nation’s defense minister has said.
The fire on the Navy’s deepwater research submersible had claimed the lives on 14 officers on board on Monday. Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu shared some details of the crew’s conduct.
“The crew acted heroically in a critical situation. They evacuated a civilian from the compartment, which was engulfed in flames, and sealed the door behind him in order to avoid the spreading of the fire onto the rest of the vessel,” he said.
All victims will receive state honors posthumously, Shoygu said.
The minister said that all crew on board were “unique naval specialists, high-class professionals, who conducted important research of the Earth’s hydrosphere.”
No comments:
Post a Comment