A Russian fishing trawler was hit by a missile during Russia’s Baltic Fleet military exercises, killing three and injuring four others, a relative of one of the dead men claimed to the Russian TV Rain on March 21.
After the incident, which reportedly occurred on March 19, Russian authorities blamed it on a fire onboard the “Captain Lobanov” boat and said only one person had died, TV Rain reported.
The media published a video allegedly showing the vessel on fire.
“When the survivors were taken away, everyone knew perfectly well that three people had died and everyone knew perfectly well that a rocket had hit,” the relative said to TV Rain.
“But they decided to write that there was a ‘fire.’ I wonder what kind of fire this is, if the captain’s cabin is completely gone – it was simply demolished.
After being taken to a hospital, the survivors were reportedly interrogated by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) officers who asked them “not to talk about the incident.”
Russian state media reports confirm that Baltic Fleet exercises were underway when the incident occurred.
According to Russian state-owned media TASS, the Baltic Fleet press service said in a statement that during training the crew of the corvette Boikiy worked on “searching, detecting and destroying a mock enemy submarine using an anti-submarine weapon system.”
The corvette also “performed practical firing from artillery systems at sea and air targets” and “practiced the actions of striking a detachment of mock enemy ships with the Uran missile system,” according to the press statement cited by TASS.
The Kyiv Independent couldn’t independently verify the reports.
Chris York
