A cargo ship with 13 Ukrainian sailors on board sank in the Black Sea off the coast of Romania. Two of the crew members have died.
The ship belonged to Ukrainian company COMET SHIPPING INC., registered in Mykolayiv, a city 478 kilometers south of Kyiv.
Romanian oil and gas service company Grup Servicii Petroliere is taking part in the rescue operation.
Ten crew members were rescued and will be taken to the passenger pier in the southern Romanian port of Constanta. They are currently receiving care in the rescue vessel’s hospital.
One more sailor is missing – the search for him is ongoing. The rescue operation is exacerbated by difficult weather conditions.
The crew of the sunken Volgo Balt 179 cargo ship consisted of 13 Ukrainians – 12 men and one woman. The ship left port in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don and was sailing to Constanta.
The vessel most likely sank because of a strong storm, the Romanian news website Playtech reported. Playtech also reported one crew member being seriously injured.
According to maritime traffic program VesselTracker, Volgo Balt 179 sailed under the flag of the Union of the Comoros – an archipelago country off the southeastern coast of Africa.
The 48-year-old ship was built in 1973.
“This is too much for the Volgo-Balts,” BlackSeaNews editor-in-chief, Andrii Klymenko, wrote on Facebook. “They are designed for a service life of 25-30 years.”
