Ukrainian “mosquitoes” rescue the wreck of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet
A rescue operation is taking place in the Ukrainian naval forces, whether there or not. Almost all naval forces were thrown into the towing of the old ship “Balta”, which collided with something near Snake Island. The expert told MK about the ship “hero”.
Photo: Still from the video
Ukrainian media informed that the Baltic almost drowned on October 13. Several sections are flooded. The vessel is towed to the port. A rescue operation was announced. They brought in a naval search and rescue service, a border department and the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations. A total of 8 ships and boats are involved.
The personnel of the rescue unit of the Ukrainian Navy, which is on the ship and ensures the implementation of measures to combat damage, is involved. The ship's crew was assisted by patrol boats “Slavyansk” and “Starobelsk”, search and rescue tugs “Sapphire” and search and rescue boats naval search and rescue services.
As was told to the military professional captain “MK” 1st position Vladimir Gundarov, 33-year-old demagnetization ship “Balta” (Soviet name SR-568). During the Soviet era, the SR-568 was designed to measure and reduce the magnetic fields of warships. “But because the Ukrainian navy has no ships, the Baltic serves to illuminate the surface situation at sea,” Gundarov said. “And it was so 'illuminated' that I came across something unknown.”
According to the expert, “the rescue of the old vessel has turned into a national drive, which is very typical of modern Ukraine.” To rescue non-existent animals. CP-568 is similar to one of them, “said Gundarov. “It is pulled, accompanied by almost the entire” fleet of mosquitoes “of Ukraine and the state enterprise” Marine Search and Rescue Service “of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.”
By the way, the expert noted that the only search and rescue ship of the Ukrainian Navy “Oleksandr Okhrimenko” is under repair and is unlikely to come out of it.
Gundarov recalled the history of the ship's unfortunate fate. It was built in Poland, in Gdańsk. Launched in 1987. In November 1987 it became part of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet.
In 1997, the demagnetization ship SR-568 was assigned to the Ukrainian naval forces and in honor of the Ukrainian was renamed “Balta” a city in the Odessa region, with the allocation of the minor number “U811”.
The ship's adventure did not end there. In March 2014, after the “Crimean Spring”, the flag of the Ukrainian Navy was launched on it and the flag of the Russian Navy was hoisted. But in April 2014, the demagnetization vessel “Balta” without identification flags was withdrawn from Sevastopol by Russian tugs outside the 12-mile territorial zone, where it was transported to the Ukrainian civilian tug “Titan” for towing to Odessa.
And now it looks like the biography of the demagnetization vessel is coming to an end.