- Update on likely ship on fire wrongly identified as Vasily Bykov
- Location of Vasily Bykov still not confirmed
Whilst the location of Russian Navy Project 22160 Corvette Vasily Bykov is still not known, further analysis of imagery and video shows that my first assessment of the ship on fire being old imagery of Estonian flagged merchant ship Helt is likely incorrect too.
With Moldavian flagged chemical tanker Millennial Spirit somehow still being afloat since it was hit by a Russian missile on 25 February 2022, this is more likely to be the ship wrongly ID’d as Vasily Bykov.
By comparing the image below with that shown in social media, one can clearly see the structures at the bow of Millennial Spirit match exactly. You can also clearly see the red colour of the ship in the video.
Vasily Bykov definitely isn’t red in colour!
Satellite imagery from Sentinel collected on 13 March 2022 shows that Millennial Spirit is still smouldering from fires. She is currently located at 46.36707 31.11753.
FleetMon AIS data below shows the last 12 days of Millennial Spirit before the transmissions ceased. You’ll see that they are not far from those last reported by Helt.
The hunt for Vasily Bykov continues. I even wonder if the ship is still in this area. Time will tell.
planesandstuff 
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