Finnish Navy divers will start demining a Soviet WWII S-2 diesel submarine near the Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea, Finnish radio reported on Tuesday.
They are to defuse and remove mines and torpedoes in and outside the sub’s hull. The work is expected to take up to four weeks.
The S-2 submarine sank on January 2, 1940 in a minefield during the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland (November 1939-March 1940). The entire 50-member crew was lost.
The submarine wreckage was discovered in June 2009 by a team of Swedish and Finnish divers. The team had started the search for the sub in April 1999.
S-class submarines, unofficially dubbed Stalinets, were one of the most widely produced and deployed submarine types in the Soviet Navy during World War II.
History of the Russian submarine fleet
Boats of this class were extremely successful and achieved more victories than any Soviet submarine. In all, they sank 82,770 gross registered tons of merchant shipping and seven warships, which accounts for about one-third of all tonnage sunk by Soviet submarines.