Ship's Doctor
Unit: Tugboat SB-739 "Vasily Bekh", Black Sea Fleet, Southern Military District
Cargo ID: #820
English Name: Sergey Fedorovich Kustov
Russian Name: Кустов Сергей Фёдорович
Date of Birth: April 8, 1961 (age: 61 years)
Social Media: Mail.ru
On June 17, 2022, the Naval Forces of Ukraine reported that they had attacked the tugboat "Vasyl Bekh" in the vicinity of Zmeiny Island. Russia has not commented on the information about the loss of the tug.
On the territory of the military unit of the Russian Navy in Sevastopol, a monument was unveiled to the crew of the Vasily Bekh tugboat that was flooded by the Armed Forces of Ukraine a year ago near Snake Island, the loss of which was never reported by the Russian Defense Ministry. Photos of the monument were published by Dmitry Shkrebets, the father of one of the dead sailors of the cruiser Moskva.
According to Shkrebets, the monument was opened on the territory of the military unit of the emergency detachment of the Black Sea Fleet. According to him, only the press service of the Navy could film the opening of the monument, and all the guests' phones were taken away. The military police watched over the fact that no one was filming. Despite this, Shkrebc, according to him, was provided with a photo of the monument before the opening (therefore, the plaque with the names in the picture is sealed).
According to Shkrebets, it took the tugboat crew and relatives of the dead crew members nine months of “bureaucratic struggle” to get the authorities to admit that the ship was involved in a “special operation”. The command of the Black Sea Fleet, in its testimony, claimed that the crew of the tugboat voluntarily went to the “special operation” zone, without orders from the leadership of the Black Sea Fleet, says Shkrebets, citing documents that he saw.
As one of the surviving members of the crew told the Agency, they still cannot get payments, since a presidential decree on social guarantees for civilian personnel of the Ministry of Defense has not been issued. Despite this, many ships with a civilian crew from the rescue squad and the detachment of support vessels of the Black Sea Fleet take part in the "SVO", he noted.
There were 19 civilian crew members and 14 military crew members, says Shkrebets. The attack killed seven civilians and four military personnel.
