The Krasin icebreaker has arrived at the site where the Sodruzhestvo mother fishery ship is stuck in thick ice in Russia's Far East Sea of Okhotsk and is preparing for a rescue effort, the Russian Transportation Ministry said.
The Bereg Nadezhdy ship, the Professor Kizevetter research vessel, and the Sodruzhestvo mother fishery ship, carrying all together more than 400 people, became trapped in two-meter-thick ice in the Sea of Okhotsk on December 31.
The Krasin and the Admiral Makarov icebreakers were to have rescued the Bereg Nadezhdy refrigerator ship first, but changed their plans due to weather conditions, setting course for the Sodruzhestvo. They left the Bereg Nadezhdy in a safe area, and will later move toward clear waters in a single-file convoy of four vessels.
Two other ships, the Mys Yelizavety and the Anton Gurin, got stuck in early January. The Admiral Makarov icebreaker released the Professor Kizevetter and the Mys Yelizavety vessels from the ice trap, and the Anton Gurin managed on its own.
Freeing the Sodruzhestvo is considered to be the most difficult task as the Admiral Makarov and the Krasin would have to coordinate their efforts to clear a wide canal in thick ice to allow the wide-body vessel to reach open waters.
The rescue effort has been hampered by strong winds, low visibility and shifting ice floes in the area.
MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti)
