The Heroes of Arsenal cargo ship sank on Wednesday in the Black Sea with three people having been rescued and other still missing, the Crimean department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said.
"On April 19, 2017, the Heroes of Arsenal ship wrecked in the waters of the Black Sea," the department said in a statement.
There were 12 crew members onboard the vessel - nine Ukrainians, two Russians, including the captain, and a Georgian citizen.
According to the Investigative Committee, the Heroes of Arsenal cargo ship issued a distress call at 3:30 a.m. Moscow time and sank some 19 miles away from Cape Zhelezny Rog, near the Kerch Strait. The ship, flying the flag of Panama, transported grain from the port city of Azov in the Rostov region to Turkey.
Three crew members have been rescued, according to a spokesman for the Investigative Committee’s southern department for transport.
"The rescue operation is ongoing," TASS cited him as saying.
The rescue effort is hampered by a storm in the area.
The cause of the shipwreck is yet to be established, the investigators said.
A spokesperson for the Russian Federal Marine and River Transport Agency (Rosmorrechflot) earlier said the vessel was owned by a Turkish company registered in the Marshall Islands, TASS reported.
