MOSCOW, April 12 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Northern Fleet big antisubmarine ship Vice-Admiral Kulakov, who is on the way for an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, will visit the Spanish port Ceuta on the African coast of the Mediterranean Sea on April 16-18, the spokesman of the Russian Navy told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
“In the Spanish port The Vice-Admiral Kulakov will replenish the water and food supplies. She is expected to arrive in the Gulf of Aden in the first decade of May. Two auxiliary ships from our navies will join the big submarine hunter,” the spokesman said.
“The Russian big submarine chaser can visit the ports in other countries of the region. This question is being discussed. The warship will be on an anti-piracy mission for two months,” the source added to Itar-Tass.
“The Vice-Admiral Kulakov went on its first anti-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa on April 6. The warship will sail to the Gulf of Aden across the Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal,” spokesman of the Northern Fleet Captain First Rank Vadim Serga told Itar-Tass earlier.
The nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky, the big antisubmarine ships Severomorsk, Admiral Chabanenko and Admiral Levchenko from the Northern Fleet escorted successfully the convoy of civilian ships through the Gulf of Aden before. The Northern Fleet warships led over 30 international convoys, convoyed over 100 Russian and foreign vessels, averted the capture of a freighter and a tanker, which the pirates attacked in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The Vice-Admiral Kulakov was built at the Zhdanov shipyard in Leningrad. The flag was hoisted on her on January 10, 1982. The crew of the warship participated in numerous long-distance missions in the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic. In 1988 the Russian big antisubmarine ship went on the trans-Atlantic crossing and paid an official visit to Cuba. After the overhaul and modernization in 2011 the warship was participating in the Russian-Norwegian naval exercises Pomor-2011.