Destroyer "Fully Manned With Contract Seamen" Deployed With Draftees On Board

13.04.2012 On request of the crewmen's relatives, Central Navy Portal checked the information whether draftees conscripted in the fall of 2011 are really on board Northern Fleet (NF) destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov left NF main base Severomorsk on Apr 6 to perform anti-piracy tasks in the Gulf of Aden. The information was confirmed.

According to information obtained by Central Navy Portal from Western Military District Press Service, conscript seamen must have signed a voluntary consent prior to the deployment. Therefore, apart from the crew's core consisting of contract seamen, there are draftees on board Vice Admiral Kulakov heading for Africa. Relatives have no news from them due to sudden departure and know nothing about their service on board the destroyer.

NF spokesman Capt 1 rank Vadim Serga stated in Feb 2012 that destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov was the first surface ship in the fleet fully manned with contract seamen. As it turned out, some of the ship's crewmen are draftees though.

According to their relatives, transfer of conscript seamen from other surface ships – in particular, destroyer Admiral Chabanenko – was held urgently two days before departure of Vice Admiral Kulakov. The reason was replacement of sick crewmen removed from the ship just before heading out.

Relatives of draftees posted on Vice Admiral Kulakov are extremely anxious about this fact because of the ship's bad reputation, i.e. reports of hazing, breaching of duty schedule, and degrading of the ship's combat effectiveness.

Central Navy Portal many times reported on various incidents and crimes occurred on the destroyer during the long-standing repair in St. Petersburg. For instance, a sailor died in 2009 during the fire on the ship. In 2010, there was a video posted on YouTube showing an officer beating up a sailor in the ship's messroom.