Rescuers are searching for nine crew members missing at sea after a cargo ship sank off Russia's Black Sea coast.
The Investigative Committee said that three crew members from the vessel were rescued after the ship sank on April 19, and reports said the search for the others continued but was hampered by stormy weather.
The ship, under a Panamanian flag, was transporting grain from Russia's southern Rostov region to Turkey.
It went missing from radars in the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov between the Russian coast and Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Russia seized in 2014.
Regional Russian officials said the crew consisted of nine Ukrainians, two Russians, including the captain, and a Georgian.
A spokesperson for the Russian Federal Marine and River Transport Agency, Rosmorrechflot, said the vessel was owned by a Turkish company registered in the Marshall Islands.
It was not immediately clear why it sank.
Based on reporting by Interfax, AFP and RIA
