Russia Has 'No Tugboats' To Save Carrier Ship Stranded in Black Sea: Audio

A rescuer carries a cat and helps a woman during an evacuation of residents of the flooded village of Pribrezhnoe in Crimea on November 27, 2023, following a storm. Over 400,000 people in Crimea were left without power on November 27, 2023 after hurricane force winds and heavy rains battered the Russian-annexed peninsula over the weekend.

Russian authorities are struggling to retrieve a carrier ship that became stranded in the Black Sea due to a major storm, according to an audio message circulating on social media.

The Belize-flagged bulk carrier named Blue Shark ran ashore near the village of Vityazevo near Anapa in Russia’s Krasnodar Territory, the country’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (Rosmorrechflot) reported via its Telegram channel. No injuries have been reported.

It comes as a major storm wreaked havoc on annexed Crimea on Sunday with hurricane-force winds and 30-foot waves, leaving one man dead, several others injured and half a million people without power.

The “Blue Shark has run ashore in a severe storm in the area of the Vityazevo settlement near Anapa’s shore,” the agency said. The captain of the vessel has said that 21 crewmembers, Syrian, Indian and Egyptian nationals, are aboard. Marine rescuers, together with the Russian Emergencies Ministry, are drafting the emergency recovery operation plan.

Russian Telegram channel Shot released an audio message reportedly of a conversation between a Russian dispatcher and the crew of the vessel. One man can be heard saying that nothing can be done to retrieve the Blue Shark due to a lack of equipment.

“We can’t help. We don’t have our own ships, tugboats, nothing: we are like an appendage,” the individual said. “We report to our boss and the boss decides.”

Newsweek has been unable to verify the authenticity of the audio message, and has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry via email for comment.

The ship was in the seaport of Taman in the Krasnodar Territory, where barley was loaded for shipment to Egypt. The cargo ship anchored after receiving a storm warning, and it was torn from its anchors in early hours of Monday due to the storm, Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported.

The federal agency said a rescue operation will be launched when weather conditions improve.

“The crew members were not injured. There are no leaks,” Rosmorrechflot said.

Videos of the storm circulating on Telegram showed huge waves battering Crimea’s coastline, causing destruction in their path. Other footage of the storm showed trees being downed by the wind. Telegram channel ASTRA reported in the Krasnodar Territory, “the wind is already tearing roofs off buildings.”

Many villages in the annexed Black Sea peninsula are without power, multiple trees have been knocked down, roofs have been torn off, and gas pipelines are damaged, and Monday has been declared a non-working day due to the weather, Russian state-run media reported Monday.

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