Embarrassment for Russian navy after spy ship crashes into freighter and sinks off Turkey

A Russian spy ship on Thursday sank in the Black Sea off Turkey’s coast after hitting a freighter packed with livestock, in an embarrassing accident that apparently occurred in thick fog.

All 78 of the survellance ship’s crew were rescued by Turkish coastguards.

The Russian navy said the Liman - a former research ship re-fitted as an intelligence vessel - had a hole ripped out of its hull in the collision with the Youzarsif H.

The collision, whose precise circumstances remain to be explained, took place in fog about 40km outside the northwestern entrance to the Bosphorus Strait, one of the world’s biggest shipping thoroughfares that passes through Istanbul into the Sea of Marmara.

The Liman was struck at 11.53am with the ship sinking three hours later at 2.48pm, Turkish and Russian sources said.

The Turkish coastguard said in a statement that the Togo-flagged vessel Youzarsif H was carrying a cargo of livestock. It said that of 78 Russian personnel on board the ship, 63 were rescued by the Turkish coastguard and the other 15 by the Youzarsif H itself.