Fairway of Peace 2012 Exercise Entered Active Phase

25.05.2012 Participants of the Fairway of Peace 2012 Russian-Ukrainian joint naval exercise on May 24 started practical activities at sea.

According to the exercise scenario, the first episode implied rendering assistance to a "passenger ferry" collided with submarine heading up-top.

Seawater began to enter the ferry's internal premises, and then fire occurred; the submarine suffered damages and lied down on the seabed. Russia's Black Sea Fleet (BSF) landing ship Caesar Kunikov acted as the distressed ship.

When performing the episode, duty force of joint search-and-rescue unit was promptly dispatched to the accident area. Positioning information was provided by BSF patrol aircraft An-26. Then Ukrainian Navy's aircraft dropped lifesaving facilities on the water.

Sufferers were picked up from the sea and evacuated to the joint medical center by Russian and Ukrainian helicopters Mi-14PS and Ka-27PS. Russian BSF airplane Be-12PS was monitoring and correcting the rescue activities.

When the "distressed" ship was towed to the base, the operation continued ashore. Russian and Ukrainian mariners defended the joint medical center. They escorted reanimobiles carrying sufferers to field hospital and countered illegal armed groups attacking a checkpoint, a heliport, and a hospital at the same time from different directions. However, thanks to excellent actions of BSF marines and Ukrainian military police, all threats were neutralized.

The active phase was attended by BSF large landing ship Caesar Kunikov, firefighting ship PZhS-123, airplanes An-26 and Be-12PS, and a Ka-27PS helicopter; Ukrainian Navy delegated harbor tug Kremenets, firefighting boat Borschev, ambulance boat Sokal, diving boat Tokmak, rescue airplane Be-12PS, and helicopters Mi-14PS and Ka-27PS.

Coastal phase was carried out by BSF marines and Ukrainian Navy's military policemen, as well as joint medical center with 150 men and 20 wheeled and armor vehicles.

The Fairway of Peace exercise continued on May 25 with rescue of submariners. That training activity was held at BSF ship-repair plant with participation of joint rescue assets and Ukrainian Navy's submarine Zaporizhzhia.