KURSK, August 12. /ITAR-TASS/. The sailors and officers from the nuclear submarine Kursk that sank in the Barents Sea 14 years ago are remembered in the cities of Russia on Tuesday.

Commemorative event are taking place in St.Petersburg, Murmansk, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningradand and other bases of the Northern Fleet.

In the city of Kursk hundreds of people — relatives, friends, top regional and city officials, and cadets — laid flowers at the monument to submariners and their tombs. Twelve of the crewmembers are buried in Kursk. A religious ceremony was held and a minute of silence was observed.

The Kursk sank during a naval exercise in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000 after a torpedo had exploded aboard. All 118 sailors aboard the submarine died. The rescue operation lasted eight days but proved futile. The submarine was lifted a year later.