Lehtikuva Lehtikuva/Reuters
- A Russian ship fired on a fishing trawler during a military exercise, killing 3, a source told local media.
- Official sources said only that the trawler had caught on fire, and that one person was killed.
- A relative of one victim said Russian secret services told them not to talk about the incident.
A Russian warship on military exercises in the Baltic Sea accidentally fired on a Russian fishing trawler, killing three people, a relative of one of the victims told local media.
On Tuesday, Russian media cited officials as saying that four people were injured and another had died in a fire on board the trawler Kaptain Lobanov.
Kaliningrad's governor, Anton Alikhanov, pledged 1 million roubles, about $10,800, to the family of the deceased, and the equivalent of $5,400 to the relatives of the other victims, according to reports.
No cause of the fire was mentioned. But an unnamed relative of one of the victims told independent Russian outlet TV Rain that three people had been killed — and that a Russian navy missile had been fired on the trawler.
The crew was about to go to bed when the missile hit, the source told the outlet.
"When the survivors were taken away, everyone knew perfectly well that three people had died and everyone knew perfectly well that a rocket had hit," the source said, per The Kyiv Post's translation.
At the hospital, survivors were interrogated by Russia's main security service, the FSB, and told not to talk about the incident, the source told TV Rain.
Russia's Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Monday, Russian state media announced that the corvette Boikiy had been carrying out exercises in the Baltic Sea.
The exercises included firing antiship missiles on mock enemy ships, the report said, citing the fleet's press service.
The report did not specify exactly where the Boikiy had been deployed for the exercises.
Vessel-tracking platform Marine Traffic located the Kaptain Lobanov outside the Russian port of Kaliningrad on Tuesday.