17 likely dead after Russian fishing boat sinks in Arctic

MOSCOW - All 17 people missing after a Russian fishing boat sank in the Barents Sea are likely dead in freezing Arctic waters, media reported Monday.

Five ships have been deployed to search for the missing, but they have not been found yet, local news outlets reported, citing a spokesman for emergency services.

According to earlier local media reports, the fishing boat, the Onega, sank near the Novoya Zemlya archipelago with 19 people on board.

Among those on board, a sailor and a navigator have been rescued and their condition is satisfactory. All the crew members are Russian citizens, said the reports.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations attributed the incident to the formation of too much ice on the vessel.

The Onega, based in Russia's Arctic port city of Murmansk, belongs to the Kalinin fishing collective farm in the Arkhangelsk region.

The Murmansk Transport Prosecutor's Office is conducting an inspection, and a criminal case has been initiated on the grounds of safety violations.