Distress signals have been received from the Sodruzhestvo fishing mother ship and the Professor Kizevetter scientific research vessel. All their attempts to get to the clear water have failed, the state sea rescue coordination centre reported.

The temperature in the area is 22 degrees below zero, and according to the forecast, it will fall lower. It may complicate the situation more and hold the vessel in the ice trap for a long time.

The grey-white ice is up to 30 centimetres thick. A distress stage and the rescue operation beginning have been declared in the region. The sea rescue tugboats Irbis, Predanny and Rubin have left for the area to evacuate people. One of them is expected to approach the edge of the ice on Friday evening. The rest are expected to come there on January 2.

According to the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk sea rescue coordination centre (the coordinator of the rescue operation), the Sodruzhestvo, the Bereg Nadezhdy transport refrigerator and the Professor Kizevetter scientific research vessel (all are from the port of Vladivostok) are in the worst situation. They are blocked in the ice 11-12 miles away from the mainland coast. In the sea ice trap are also the fishing and transport ships Tumnin, Ostrov Karaginsky, Amursky Liman, Komsomolets Kaliningrada, Pamyat Kirova, Gennady Volodarsky and Alexander Belyakov. They are from the ports of Nakhodka, Vladivostok, Sovgavan, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, St. Petersburg and Murmansk.

Source: TACC

Moscow – There were no weapons being smuggled on board the hijacked “Arctic Sea” freighter according to the conclusions of a Russian investigation into the vessel, reported the Interfax news agency on Wednesday. Speculation has mounted ever since

Now, after weeks of Russian officials denying those charges, investigators say their research has backed up those denials.

The ship is scheduled to dock at Las Palmas on Spain’s Canary Islands where it will be handed over to Maltese authorities, since the ship was registered under Malta’s flag, said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s investigative service. According to official reports, the ship had been taken by pirates near Sweden. The accused pirates, primarily Estonians, are in custody in Russia. Most of the crew has been released after questioning in Russia, though four crew members remain on board the freighter while it heads to port. The four remaining crewmen are to fly home so a new team can man the freighter on its way to Malta.

More on this can be found via the Associated Press HERE

Breaking weather news from Russia. Bloomberg tells us;

An oil spill from a tanker that sank in a storm in waters between Russia and Ukraine threatens an “environmental catastrophe,” said Vladimir Slivyak, head of the Moscow-based Ecodefense group.

The Volgoneft-139 leaked 1,300 tons of fuel oil into the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, a Russian Transport Ministry spokeswoman, who declined to be identified, said in Moscow. Four other ships sank in yesterday’s storm that produced six-meter (20-foot) waves, state broadcaster Russia Today reported. Two sailors are dead and 23 are missing, it said.

“The effect will be very serious for the whole marine ecosystem, including fish, because of the high toxicity of oil products,” Slivyak said by telephone in Moscow yesterday. It will take several months to remove the oil on the surface, while the oil that sank will be “very hard” to clear, he added. Continue Reading…

1,300 tons converts to approximately 560,000 gallons of fuel oil or 10 times that which was spilt last week by the Cosco Busan in San Francisco Bay. No specifics yet but maybe Robin Storm can enlighten us.

CNN has some impressive video as well: LINK

Click here to view the embedded video.