Britain and Norway have joined a race against time to help Russia rescue the crew of a nuclear submarine stranded on the floor of the Barents Sea, but their help may come too late for the 118 crewmen.
After insisting for two days that Western aid was not needed, the Russian government yesterday asked Britain and Norway for assistance. Britain airlifted a rescue mini-sub to the Norwegian port of Trondheim to be sent on to the site, and Norway dispatched a ship carrying divers.
But it will take two days for the divers to reach the scene and nearly three days for the British craft and a 20-member team to get there.
For days Russian officials reported tapping sounds from the crew inside the stranded Kursk, but the sounds ceased yesterday.
In Washington, an intelligence official said U.S. surveillance had detected no signs of life aboard the Kursk since it went down Saturday. The Russians have said the accident occurred on Sunday.
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said the sailors might be resting to conserve energy. "There is no sign of life, but from this it is not necessary to conclude something terrible," he told Interfax news agency in Moscow.
Officials had said the crew (whose number was raised by two after an original count of 116) would run out of air by tomorrow. But Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, head of the Russian navy, suggested yesterday that oxygen could possibly last until next week.
President Vladimir Putin, on vacation at a Black Sea resort, made his first public statement about the crisis yesterday, defending his country's rescue efforts.
"From the moment it became clear that something had happened, all necessary and possible efforts to save the craft and its crew have been carried out," he told reporters after meeting with a group of senior officials.
"Unfortunately, the weather is very bad. A storm has raged for two days, and sailors could not use all the means at their disposal," Mr. Putin said. He described the situation as "critical, but we are doing everything possible to save their lives."
Vladislav Ilyin, deputy chief of staff of the navy, told RTR television that Mr. Putin gave the order "to accept help wherever it comes from" after speaking by telephone with President Bill Clinton, who repeated offers of U.S. help.
The last-minute decision to accept aid -- which was offered on Monday -- could open Russian authorities to criticism that national pride prevented them from calling for help sooner.
Meanwhile, relatives of the crew began to arrive at the submarine's base on the Arctic Ocean yesterday, where they will await word of their loved ones. The Russian government also belatedly set up a hot line for relatives, some of whom complained that they had no official information.
What happened to the Kursk is still not clear, but the ITAR-Tass news agency early today quoted Russian navy officials as saying the accident that paralyzed the Kursk was unlike any other in submarine history, with damage "lightning-swift and on a large scale."
"This accident has reasons and consequences different from all other submarine accidents, since the crew was unable to use either emergency equipment or radio contact," Russian navy officials told the news agency.
Reports in Moscow said it might have been an explosion that followed the launch of a torpedo during a training mission on Saturday, or the Kursk may have struck a foreign object, such as an old mine.
The U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. surveillance indicated the submarine sank because of two explosions on board, the second much bigger than the first. The Russian navy reportedly told Tass there were no explosions.
"We've seen no evidence of, or heard no evidence of, survivors on the submarine. We don't know whether anyone survived the initial incident or not, but we see no evidence that would tell us anyone did," the U.S. official told Reuters.
At the site yesterday, more than 100 kilometres northeast of Murmansk, the 20-ship Russian operation was battered by strong winds and surging waves. Russian rescue capsules made repeated descents into the stormy waters, but strong currents made it impossible to latch on to the submarine, which is lying at a sharp list 110 metres beneath the surface.
Naval experts have said it would take at least four hours to bring crew members to the surface in the Russian rescue capsules, and at least six trips would be needed to bring out the entire crew.
Despite the dire situation, the head of the British rescue team said he had not lost hope for the men. "We would not be going unless we thought there was something positive we could do," Commodore Tim Chittenden said.
The British LR5 mini-sub that was flown to Norway has never been used in a real-life rescue, but was designed for just such a life-or-death situation as that facing the Kursk. It carries a crew of three and can evacuate up to 16 people at a time, though it is not certain that the hatches will match the Russian vessel.
In Trondheim, the LR5 will be loaded onto a transport ship to make the 1,400-kilometre trip to the site. The trip would take about 52 hours, getting the rescue craft to the scene by Saturday, Norwegian officials said.