The first non-Russian attempt to rescue the crew of the stricken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk is due begin later today, when a British high-tech submersible should reach the site of the accident, weather permitting.
However, hopes of finding anyone alive are dwindling, as both the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, and the commander of Russia's Northern Fleet, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, acknowledged yesterday that the situation was grim.
A British-Norwegian mission was steaming towards the Barents Sea last night. An oil support ship ferried the submersible, while another vessel carrying a team of deep-sea rescue divers was expected on site tomorrow. The 12 divers, including eight British nationals and four Norwegians, are accompanied by 14 support divers on the Seaway Eagle.
As of last night, the divers had still not been informed of the exact nature of work that would be asked of them. But they will probably be called upon to help dock the British submersible onto the Kursk's rear hatch and ferry any surviving members of the 118 crew on board to the surface.
Russian military officers were to be transported to the ships this morning to brief the British and Norwegian teams. Meanwhile, Russian rescue teams for the first time yesterday latched onto an escape hatch on the submarine before losing grip because it was damaged. They said they would have another attempt before leaving the fate of any survivors in the hands of the British team today.
It was the closest that Russian rescuers had come to saving any of the 118 men who might have survived their six-day ordeal in complete darkness and cold at the bottom of the Barents Sea.
A mini-submarine grabbed hold of one of the escape hatches before discovering that it was too damaged to be used to establish a link between the two vessels.
An RTR television correspondent reporting from one of the ships taking part in the rescue operation in the Arctic waters said the mini-sub was unable to establish a hermetically-sealed connection with the Kursk. Water began to flood into the rescue vessel and the crew was forced to resurface.
President Putin yesterday cut short a visit to Ukraine to return to Moscow, while defending his decision to keep a low profile during increasingly desperate efforts to rescue the Kursk.
In televised remarks from the Black Sea resort of Yalta, where he was attending a summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mr Putin said he had resisted an initial temptation to visit the rescue scene because he feared his presence would interfere with the operation.
He also defended the work of Russian salvage crews and said international offers of help had been accepted as soon as they were offered, while stressing that he had been told from the start that "there was very little chance of success" for the rescuers.
Over the last few days the authorities have come under growing criticism from the domestic media and from relatives of crew members for the slow pace of the rescue operation.
Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, the commander of Russia's northern fleet, said he still had a faint hope of rescuing the sailors trapped in the submarine but was concerned about air pressure in the craft.
"I am very worried that, according to our calculations, the pressure in the submarine is higher than the normal atmosphere. Our estimates of the time limit for survival have been based on the fact that the air pressure is normal. The situation is very grave," he said, speaking from one of the rescue ships.
Contradictory reports continued to emerge about the cause of the accident. The official Russian version remains that there had probably been a collision with another vessel. However, a Norwegian seismic institute appeared to confirm information from US military sources that there had been two explosions on board the Kursk last Saturday.