BUENOS AIRES, April 3. /TASS/. Russian oceanographic ship Yantar has quitted the search for the missing Argentinian submarine San Juan, Telam news agency said on Monday.

"We were told the ship would head for Uruguay and would then call into Buenos Aires but wouldn’t return to the search area," Telam was told by the sister a missing crewmember who gets daily information from Argentinian Navy representatives on the progress of the search.

Jorge Kuznetsov, Russia’s honorary consul in Mar del Plata, the city where the home naval base of the missing submarine is located, could not confirm the report that the Yantar had quitted the search operation.

"Rumors say it has pulled out, indeed, but I haven’t received an official confirmation yet," Kuznetsov said.

The diesel-electric submarine AA San Juan with a 44-strong crew aboard that left Argentina’s southernmost port of Ushuaia stopped responding to communications on November 15, 2017. The Navy said on November 30, 2017, it had stopped an operation to rescue the crew but would continue the search for the submarine itself.