The rising temperature has caused the process of ice break-up in the Sea of Azov, but the fast ice thickness unchanged ranging from 56 cm to 33 cm in the sea, the Azov Ice Ops Headquarters said.
Ice-breaking began in the western part of Gulf of Taganrog. The ice is drifting to the east and south-east. Close ice is along the northern coast of the sea. In the Belosaraysky Bay - open water with some ice floes. In the west - there is an ice pack, thin first-year and gray-white ice with a big patch of ice-free water. There is close gray-white ice in the eastern part of the Azov Sea. The Kerch area is ice free.
The Rosmorport’s icebreakers continue to assist shipping in the Sea of Azov. For the past day the Kapitan Demidov has escorted two convoys of 5 and 8 ships to open water, Kapitan Moshkin and Kapitan Krutov will lead a 9-ship convoy to the Kerch Strait.
Icebreaker Kapitan Chudinov is now leading a convoy of 10 ships to Rostov-on-Don, while the Malta flag MV Stefania-Michaela is sailing without assistance.
As of 5:00 pm (Moscow Time),16 March there were 21 cargo ships in the Sea of Azov, 20 of them were moving and 1 was damaged, 92 vessels (ice-classed -18) were ready to depart from the Azov Sea ports. In the Black Sea there were 82 ships (30 with ice-class hulls) – to pass through the Kerch Strait.