Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Archive footage of Russian spy ship which sank off Turkey

A Russian spy ship has sunk off the Turkish coast after being breached in a collision with a freighter, with all its crew rescued, the Turkish coastal authority says.

Russia confirmed earlier that the hull of the Liman, part of its Black Sea Fleet, had sustained a breach, with crew working to keep it afloat.

The cause of the collision is unclear but fog was reported in the area.

The ship hit a Togo-flagged boat carrying livestock, Turkish media say.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, to express his sadness over the collision, sources in the Turkish prime minister's office were quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) passes through the Bosphorus Strait for deployments in the Mediterranean, notably in Syria.

All 78 crew aboard the Liman were safely evacuated, the Turkish coastal authority said in a statement (in Turkish) on its website.

It collided with the Youzarsif H freighter, reportedly 29km (18 miles) from the Turkish town of Kilyos on the Black Sea coast just north of the city of Istanbul, and had sunk by 14:48 (11:48 GMT).

It was not clear whether either vessel was heading to the Bosphorus Strait at the time, Reuters news agency reports.

The BSF said the Russian crew had followed all the rules of sailing and manoeuvring and it suggested the incident had been caused by the other ship, Russia's Interfax news agency reports.

A former commander of the fleet, Adm Viktor Kravchenko, told Interfax the event was "out of the ordinary".

"There have been collisions but I do not remember a case like this, of a vessel, a warship sinking after it," he said.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Liman was photographed passing through the Bosphorus in October

The freighter reportedly sustained minor damage in the incident.

Built in Gdansk, Poland, the Liman was launched in 1970, when it served with the USSR's Northern Fleet before joining the BSF in 1974, according to the kchf.ru naval website (in Russian).

Based at Sevastopol in Crimea, the territory annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, it was a regular visitor to the Syrian port of Tartus for decades, the site notes.

In 1999, the Liman made international headlines when it was deployed to the Mediterranean to monitor Nato operations against Yugoslavia.</s>ISTANBUL, April 27 (Reuters) - A Togo-flagged ship collided with a Russian intelligence vessel near Turkey's Black Sea Coast on Thursday, and some 78 crew members had been evacuated from the Russian ship, a Turkish coastal safety official told Reuters.

Broadcaster NTV said earlier the Russian vessel collided with a ship carrying livestock. The Turkish official did not give any details on the Togo-flagged ship, or the condition of its crew.</s>A Russian navy reconnaissance ship has sunk off Istanbul after colliding with a freighter in the Black Sea.

All 78 personnel on board the Liman are accounted for after it collided with the Togo-flagged freighter Youzarsif H.

The Turkish safety authority said 15 Russian sailors were rescued after the collision.

The freighter was carrying livestock, and all of its crew is safe.</s>(MOSCOW) — A Russian naval reconnaissance ship sank Thursday after colliding with a freighter off Istanbul, but all crew members were rescued, the Defense Ministry said.

Turkey's coastal safety authority said all 78 personnel from the Russian frigate Liman were safe, as were all crew aboard the freighter, the Togo-flagged Youzarsif H. The freighter was carrying livestock.

The Defense Ministry said a hole was punched in the starboard side of the Liman during the collision, which occurred around midday Thursday about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the Bosphorus Strait. The cause of the collision wasn't immediately clear.

The Liman was part of the Black Sea Fleet. The Interfax news agency reported that it spent much of the winter in the Mediterranean off the coast of Syria and returned to the Black Sea to monitor NATO exercises in February.

The rescued Russian sailors were all aboard a Turkish rescue vessel and would be picked up by a nearby Russian cargo ship, the Ulus Star, the ministry said, without specifying the number of crew members. It said the cargo ship would deliver the sailors to the home base of the Black Sea Fleet, which is on Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.</s>The Russian navy reconnaissance ship Liman has sunk off Istanbul after colliding with a freighter. All of the Russian sailors are safe.Turkey's state-run news agency says that the prime minister has called his Russian counterpart to express his "sadness" over the ship collision in the Black Sea.Anadolu Agency says that Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has spoken by phone with Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev soon after the collision.Authorities say that all 78 personnel on the Russian vessel Liman are accounted for after it collided with the Togo-flagged freighter Youzarsif H.The freighter was carrying livestock and all of its crew is safe.</s>A Russian military vessel, known to be a “spy ship,” sank in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey Thursday, Russian and Turkish officials are saying. The Russian intelligence gathering ship, identified as the Liman, sustained a breach to its hull after colliding with a freighter just north of the city of Istanbul.

The Guardian reported that the Turkish Coast Guard has confirmed that Russian naval ship Liman, a craft stationed in Crimea and part of the Black Sea Fleet, was involved in a collision with a Togo-flagged freighter carrying livestock and subsequently began taking on water from a breach to the hull. Although personnel attempted to save the spy ship, it sank within three hours of the accident.

Russia’s defense ministry had confirmed earlier in the day that the Liman had acquired a hole during the incident, telling the Interfax news agency there were no casualties among the ship’s crew, who were “fighting to keep the boat in the water.”

All 78 sailors aboard the Liman were safely rescued, picked up by a Turkish rescue vessel, according to the Associated Press.

Reuters reported that advisers to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim extended a message of his sadness over the collision to his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, according to sources within the prime minister’s office.

Relations between the two nations have been strained for the past few years. The most recent source of friction has come from disputes regarding the Syrian civil war, where Russia has backed the sitting regime of President Bashar al-Asad, while Turkey has supported his ouster by Syrian rebels.

The Guardian further reported that shipping agent GAC had revealed that the Russian ship Liman and the other craft, identified by the agent as the Youzarsif H, ran into each other in foggy conditions with accompanying low visibility. The Youzarsif H was said to have been laden with livestock and to have sustained minor damage. Its crew was also reportedly without injuries.

A former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, told Interfax, according to BBC News, the event was “out of the ordinary.”

“There have been collisions but I do not remember a case like this, of a vessel, a warship sinking after it,” he said.

The Liman is a former research vessel that the Russian navy has retrofitted and refurbished into an intelligence reconnaissance ship. It is equipped with radio and sonar equipment to carry out its various missions. The spy ship had returned to the Black Sea from a stint in the Mediterranean Sea at the end of January.

In February and March, the nascent presidency of President Donald Trump was challenged with the appearance of a Russian spy ship along the U.S. East Coast, where it came within 17 miles of land at one point. Identified as the Viktor Leonov, the reconnaissance ship was an AGI (Auxiliary, General Intelligence) trawler that was outfitted with non-digital reconnaissance equipment.

Seen by many as a goad directed at the newly inaugurated president, Trump dismissed the spy ship as simply doing what reconnaissance ships do. Although the voyages made headline news, with endless speculation on the Russians’ motive and possible responses by the United States, the administration treated it commonplace and of no real concern to national security.

The Bosphorus, which slices through Istanbul, is one of the world’s most important waterways for maritime commerce, especially when the commodities are oil and grain. The 17-mile strait connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

The GAC shipping agency said that when the collision took place, the Bosphorus had already been closed to shipping due to poor visibility.</s>Istanbul: A Russian naval intelligence ship sank on Thursday after colliding with a merchant freighter in the Black Sea near Istanbul, the Turkish coast guard said. All 78 crew members on the Russian vessel were rescued.The crew of the freighter, a Togo-flagged ship travelling from Romania to Jordan and carrying 8800 sheep, was unharmed and the ship suffered slight damage to its bow, according to local media reports.In Moscow, Russia's Defence Ministry issued a statement confirming that the vessel, the Liman, went down after the collision tore a hole in the hull below the waterline.Russian officials did not immediately provide any information about the Liman's mission.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Daily Millbury.</s>ISTANBUL - A Russian naval spy ship on Thursday sank in the Black Sea off Turkey’s coast after hitting a Togo-flagged vessel packed with livestock but all of its 78 crew were rescued by Turkish coastguards.

The Russian military 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 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 11:53 local time (0853 GMT) with the ship sinking three hours later at 2:48 pm (1148 GMT), 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.

They were then transferred to a Turkish military ship, it said, without giving further details. “All the personnel were evacuated,” it said.

Turkish media said the Youzarsif suffered minor damage and went on its way after the incident. The Russian defence ministry confirmed the ship had gone down and said the crew were safe and would be taken from a Turkish vessel back onto a Russian ship.

Turkish news agency Dogan said the area where the ships collided was shrouded in thick fog at the time, suggesting that the incident was accidental.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim spoke to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev by phone over the incident, describing it as an accident and expressing his sadness, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. It was not known where the Liman was sailing from or its destination.

The ship was built as a hydrography research vessel in 1970 but turned into a spy ship in 1989 and armed with an Igla missile launcher, according to public records.

Russian warships have travelled frequently through the Bosphorus Strait to and from the Syrian coast, where a navy presence has been deployed to bolster Russia’s air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

In February, military sources told Russian media that Liman would be observing NATO’s Sea Shield exercise in the Black Sea.

Cem Devrim Yaylali, an Istanbul-based Turkish naval expert and editor of the Bosphorus Naval News website, said the Liman had previously been to the Syrian coast but it was not clear where it was headed on this occasion. “A collision is not something that happens very frequently,” he told AFP.

He said the incident was an embarrassment for the Russian authorities as the Liman was likely carrying sensitive surveillance equipment that Moscow would want returned.

“I imagine there will be a salvage effort to raise the ship before anyone else sees it,” he said. “If the ship cannot be salvaged then Russia surely will try to take away the sensitive equipment from on board by divers.”

Relations between Russia and Turkey hit their worst state since the Cold War in November 2015 when Turkish war planes shot down a Russian jet over the Syrian border. But there has since been a dramatic reconciliation, with Moscow and Ankara now engaged in a joint effort to bring peace to Syria despite standing on opposing sides of the conflict.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to hold his latest talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Russia on May 3.

As a Black Sea littoral state, Russia is allowed to have its military ships pass through the Bosphorus under the 1936 Montreux Convention on the Straits.

The intense traffic of Russian vessels to and from Syria - known as the Syrian Express - has caused immense curiosity in Istanbul where the warships pass through the heart of the city in full view of ship-spotters.

“There have been collisions but I cannot recall once that a military ship has sunk afterwards,” Russia’s former navy chief of staff admiral Viktor Kravchenko told the Interfax news agency.

“This is an event that is out of the ordinary,” he said.</s>The Latest on Russia navy ship damaged near Istanbul (all times local):

Turkey's state-run news agency says the prime minister conveyed his "sadness" over a ship collision to his Russian counterpart through his aides, correcting an earlier report which said the two leaders had spoken on the phone.

The Anadolu Agency said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's aides contacted Dmitry Medvedev's office to relay Turkey's message on Thursday.

The Russian navy reconnaissance ship Liman sunk off Istanbul after colliding with a freighter. All of the Russian sailors are safe.

Turkey's coastal safety authority says that a Russian navy reconnaissance ship has sunk off Istanbul after colliding with a freighter. All of the Russian sailors are safe.

Authorities say that all 78 personnel on the Russian vessel Liman are accounted for after it collided with the Togo-flagged freighter Youzarsif H. in the Black Sea. The safety authority says 15 Russian sailors had been rescued after the collision.

The freighter was carrying livestock and all of its crew is safe.

Russia's defense ministry says a naval reconnaissance ship is in danger of sinking in the Black Sea after colliding with another vessel.

The ministry says the Liman has a hole as a result of the collision that occurred Thursday about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the Bosphorus Strait.

The ministry statement, carried by Russian news agencies, says none of the crew members is hurt and they are trying to save the ship.</s>The Latest on Russia navy ship damaged near Istanbul (all times local):

Turkey's state-run news agency says that the prime minister has called his Russian counterpart to express his "sadness" over a ship collision in the Black Sea.

The Russian navy reconnaissance ship Liman has sunk off Istanbul after colliding with a freighter. All of the Russian sailors are safe.

Anadolu Agency says that Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has spoken by phone with Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev soon after the collision.

No other details have been provided.

Turkey's coastal safety authority says that a Russian navy reconnaissance ship has sunk off Istanbul after colliding with a freighter. All of the Russian sailors are safe.

Authorities say that all 78 personnel on the Russian vessel Liman are accounted for after it collided with the Togo-flagged freighter Youzarsif H. in the Black Sea. The safety authority says 15 Russian sailors had been rescued after the collision.

The freighter was carrying livestock and all of its crew is safe.

Russia's defense ministry says a naval reconnaissance ship is in danger of sinking in the Black Sea after colliding with another vessel.

The ministry says the Liman has a hole as a result of the collision that occurred Thursday about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the Bosphorus Strait.

The ministry statement, carried by Russian news agencies, says none of the crew members is hurt and they are trying to save the ship.
A Russian Navy spy ship sinks off the coast of Turkey after colliding with a Togo-flagged freighter. All 78 crew aboard the ship were safely evacuated, according to Turkish officials.