MOSCOW, Russia ( AFP ) — Russia on Thursday sent a navy vessel to help Argentina search for a missing submarine in the South Atlantic following President Vladimir Putin’s phone call with Argentinian counterpart Mauricio Maxri.
In a phone call late Wednesday, Putin offered “words of support over the situation with the San Juan submarine,” the Kremlin said in a statement, adding: “Russia offered aid in the search and rescue operations.”
The Russian defense ministry said it had sent an oceanographic research vessel, the Yantar, which has been working off the western coast of Africa, on Putin’s orders.
The ship “is equipped with two deep water submersibles which allow exploratory searches at a depth of up to 6,000 meters” or 20,000 feet, a statement quoted by Russian news agencies said.
The Yantar is a new ship that joined the Russian navy’s Northern Fleet in 2015.
The submarine with 44 crew members on board has been missing for a week despite a massive search of surface and seabed, amid fears the oxygen had run out.