Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has given Presidential Chief of Staff Serhiy Liovochkin and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov until September 15 to consider the possibility of lifting the Soviet-era submarine Shch-216, which sank in the northwestern part of the Black Sea during World War II.
The project will also include measures to establish a museum dedicated to this submarine, officially bury its crew and put up a monument, the president’s Web site has reported.
Foreign countries could be invited to contribute to the efforts.
Divers from the Black Sea Underwater Research Center came across the Shch-216 submarine lying at a depth of 52 meters on the seabed near Cape Tarkhankut in early July.
Archive documents confirm that it is one of the 16 missing Soviet Shchuka-type submarines. It sank following a depth bomb explosion during a combat mission in February or March 1944. Its entire crew was killed.