Moscow - Fourteen Russian sailors were
killed when a fire broke out while their deep-water research
submarine was carrying out a survey of the sea floor near the
Arctic, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday.
A Russian media outlet, RBC, cited an unnamed military
source as saying the submarine was nuclear-powered, but Russian
officials made no comment on the type of vessel involved.
The incident was the deadliest involving a Russian naval
submarine since August 2000, when the nuclear-powered Kursk sank
to the floor of Barents Sea after two explosions in its bow,
killing all 118 men aboard.
The latest incident also took place in the vicinity of the
Barents Sea. Authorities in nearby Norway said they were
monitoring but had not detected abnormally high levels of
radiation.
"This is a great loss for the navy," Russian President
Vladimir Putin said in a televised meeting with his defence
minister, Sergei Shoigu.
"We express our deepest condolences to the families of those
who died. We will do everything we can to support them," said
Putin, who cancelled a public engagement on Tuesday afternoon to
deal with the incident.
Putin told Shoigu to fly to Severomorsk, the Russian naval
base on the Barents Sea where the submarine is now located, to
find out what caused the incident, and then report back to him.
The incident took place on Monday in Russian territorial
waters and the fire has been extinguished, the Russian defence
ministry said earlier
"Fire broke out on board a deep-water scientific research
vessel that was studying the marine environment of the world
ocean on behalf of the Russian navy," Interfax news agency cited
a ministry statement as saying. "Fourteen submariners died as
the result of smoke inhalation."
The defence ministry did not identify the type or model of
the vessel. At their meeting, Shoigu and Putin also made no
mention of the type of vessel, or whether it was
nuclear-powered.
The RBC news outlet said it was a vessel known by the
designation AS-12, which is powered by a nuclear reactor and is
designed to carry out special operations at depths where regular
submarines cannot operate.
Norwegian officials said they had been in touch with their
Russian counterparts but had not been able to establish the type
of vessel.
"We have made checks and we are not monitoring too high
radiation levels in the area," Per Strand, a director at the
Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, told Reuters.
He said Russian officials had told his agency that a gas
explosion took place on board the submarine.
Russia denied this piece of information later on Tuesday.
The Interfax news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying
that it had not reported a gas explosion to the Norwegian side.
HIGH-RANKING CREW
In his meeting with his defence minister, Putin said that of
the 14 dead, seven held the rank of captain, first class, and
two were holders of the Hero of Russia, the highest military
award issued in the post-World War Two period.
"This is not a regular vessel, as we know, it's a scientific
research vessel. It's a highly professional crew," Putin said.
The sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000, soon after Putin
took office, focussed official attention on the state of the
military and its hardware, which had been subject to
underfunding and neglect after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Since then, Putin has overseen a massive increase in
military spending that has allowed the armed forces to renew
their equipment and improve training and morale.
However, accidents have continued to happen as the military,
used by the Kremlin to project its growing international muscle,
has ramped up its activities and extended into new theatres of
operation.
In December 2016, a Russian military plane carrying 92
people, including dozens of Red Army Choir singers, crashed into
the Black Sea en route to Syria where Russian forces are
deployed. Everyone on board was killed.
Russia's military has been developing new submarines as part
of a broader push for new defence hardware under Putin that has
also included hypersonic missiles and naval drones.
US media have cited Pentagon officials as saying they are
concerned about the increased activities of Russian submarines
and spy ships operating in the ocean off the US coastline.
According to an archived report in Russian newspaper
Izvestia, the AS-12 submarine was first launched in 2003 and is
known by the nickname "Losharik".
It is made out of a series of inter-connected spheres, which
are stronger than the conventional submarine construction and
allow the AS-12 to resist water pressure at great depths.
The plant that built the vessel declined to disclose any
details about it, citing secrecy rules, Izvestia reported.