Russian tug Spasatel Vasily Bekh

Spasatel Vasily Bekh was a rescue tug built to tow ships in distress, fight fires at sea, supply water and electricity to other ships, evacuate injured personnel, and act as a diving rescue platform. It had a crew of 26 and could carry an additional 36 people. The ship measured long, had a beam of , and a draft of . It had a standard displacement of 1,200 tonnes and 1,670 tonnes when fully loaded. It had a maximum speed of and was capable of operating autonomously for up to 20 days. It was propelled by two Azipod units and two bow thrusters that were powered by two electric motors, which were supplied by three main diesel gensets with a combined power output of . == History ==

Spasatel Vasily Bekh was designed in Nizhny Novgorod by Vympel Design Bureau. The ship was laid down at Zvezdochka Shipyard in Astrakhan under the designation ''''. It was launched on 2 August 2016, commissioned into the Russian Navy on 16 January 2017, and passed its trials later that month. In March 2017, Spasatel Vasily Bekh was one of four Project 22870 tugs assigned to the Black Sea Fleet, the others being Professor Nikolay Muru, Capitan Guryev, and ''. It became part of the 145th Rescue Ship Detachment. According to early unconfirmed reports from Russia, 23 of the 33 personnel on board were injured and the other 10 were missing. Shortly after the sinking on 21 June, British military intelligence confirmed the attack, stating that the vessel sunk was almost certainly Spasatel Vasily Bekh'', and that it was carrying a Tor anti-aircraft missile system when it sank. In June 2023 the erection of a memorial at Sevastopol was reported by Russian exile medium Meduza, although the navy never officially admitted the loss of the vessel. == References ==