On early August 2nd, tugboats of PORTOFLOT were escorting three Russian warships that participated in the Russian Navy day celebrated in St. Petersburg on July 31, PortNews correspondent reported from the scene.
The towing was complicated as the amphibious assault ship Minsk was too large to deploy her against the current of the Neva river in a narrow place – between the Palace Bridge and Blagoveshchensky Bridge. However, two tugs of PORTOFLOT handled the task, towing the vessel between the Palace Bridge footings on the Neva. Then, the tugs managed to reverse the ship at the widest point of the river - in front of Peter and Paul Fortress, and escort her from the Neva to the Gulf of Finland.
Six maneuverable tugs, "Mars", "Pavlovsk", "Mercury", "Peterhof", "Uranus", "Sestroretsk" of Ecological Fleet LLC (ship operator - JSC PORTOFLOT) were participating in the operation towing the warships on the Neva to the Admiralty Embankment of St. Petersburg and back.