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Questions for Investigators Trying to Unravel Mystery of Luxury Yacht’s Sinking

The investigators searching for answers about the shipwreck, leaving seven dead, face questions about extreme weather and possible human error or problems with the yacht itself.

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By Alan Yuhas

More than 180 feet long, with a mast towering about 240 feet and a keel that could be lowered for greater stability, the Bayesian luxury yacht did not, in the eyes of its maker, have the vulnerabilities of a ship that would easily sink.

“It drives me insane,” Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought the company that made the ship, said after its wreck last week. “Following all the proper procedures, that boat is unsinkable.”

But the $40 million sailing yacht sank within minutes and with fatal results: seven dead, including the British technology billionaire Michael Lynch, his teenage daughter, four of Mr. Lynch’s friends and a member of the crew. Fifteen people, including the captain, escaped on a lifeboat.

Mr. Lynch had invited family, friends and part of his legal team on a cruise in the Mediterranean to celebrate his acquittal in June of fraud charges tied to the sale of his company to the tech giant Hewlett-Packard.

The Italian authorities have opened a manslaughter investigation, searching for answers from the survivors, the manufacturer and the wreck itself. They face a range of questions and possible factors.

An ‘earthquake’ in the sky?

When the Bayesian sank around 4 a.m. on Aug. 19, the waters in its area, about half a mile off the Sicilian port of Porticello, were transformed by an extremely sudden and violent storm, according to fishermen, a captain in the area and meteorologists.

But what kind of storm is still a mystery, compounded by the fact that a sailing schooner anchored nearby did not have its own disaster. Also unclear is whether the crew was aware that the Italian authorities had issued general warnings about bad weather the night before.

Karsten Börner, the captain of the nearby passenger ship, said he’d had to steady his ship during “really violent” winds . During the storm, he said, the Bayesian seemed to disappear behind his ship.

Severe lightning and strong gusts were registered by the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, according to Attilio Di Diodato, its director. “It was very intense and brief in duration,” he said.

The yacht, he said, had most likely been hit by a fierce downburst — a blast of powerful wind surging down during a thunderstorm. His agency put out rough-sea warnings the previous evening, alerting sailors about possible storms.

Locals have said the winds “felt like an earthquake.” A fisherman in Porticello said that he had seen a flare go off in the early-morning hours. His brother ventured to the site once the weather had calmed about 20 minutes later, he said, finding only floating cushions.

The Italian authorities have so far declined to say whether investigators had seen any structural damage to the hull or other parts of the ship.

Open hatches or doors?

The boat executive, Mr. Costantino, has argued that the Bayesian was an extremely safe vessel that could list even to 75 degrees without capsizing. His company, the Italian Sea Group, in 2022 bought the yacht’s manufacturer, Perini Navi, which launched the ship in 2008.

Mr. Costantino said that if some of the hatches on the side and in the stern, or some of the deck doors, had been open, the boat could have taken on water and sunk. Standard procedure in such storms, he said, would be to switch on the engine, lift the anchor and turn the boat into the wind, lowering the keel for extra stability, closing doors and gathering the guests in the main hall inside the deck.

At a news conference on Saturday, almost a week after the sinking, investigators said the yacht had sunk at an angle , with its stern — where the heavy engine was — having gone down first. The wreck was found lying on its right side at the bottom of a bay, about 165 feet deep.

12 guests occupied the yacht’s six cabins. There were also 10 crew members.

Open hatches, doors and cabin windows could have let in water during a storm, according to the manufacturer.

Open hatches, doors and

cabin windows could

have let in water

during a storm,

according to the

manufacturer.

Source: Superyacht Times, YachtCharterFleet, MarineTraffic

By Veronica Penney

Water pouring into open hatches or doors could have contributed to the sinking, experts say, but that on its own may not account for the speed at which such a large boat vanished underwater.

Asked about the hatches at the news conference, the authorities declined to comment on whether they had been found open at the wreck.

The authorities have also not specified whether the boat had been anchored, whether it was under power at the time or whether its sails had been unfurled.

A retracted keel?

The Bayesian had a keel — the fin-like structure beneath a boat that can help stabilize it — that could be retracted or extended, according to its manufacturer. On some yachts, keels can be raised to let the large vessel dock in shallower water, and extended downward to help keep a boat level.

But like the hatches, the status of the keel alone may not explain why a large ship sank with such precipitous speed. Investigators have not disclosed what divers may have seen at the wreck, aside from saying divers had faced obstacles like furnishings and electrical wiring in tight quarters. Officials want to raise the wreck to better examine it, a process that may take weeks.

Human error?

Ambrogio Cartosio, the prosecutor in charge of the case, said at the news conference that it was “plausible” crimes had been committed, but that investigators had not zeroed in on any potential suspects.

“There could be responsibilities of the captain only,” he said. “There could be responsibilities of the whole crew. There could be responsibilities of the boat makers. Or there could be responsibilities of those who were in charge of surveilling the boat.”

It remains unclear what kind of emergency training or preparation took place before the disaster, or what kind of coordination there was during it. So far, none of the surviving crew members have made a public statement about what happened the night the ship sank.

Prosecutors said they want to ask more questions of the captain and crew, who have been in a Sicilian hotel with other survivors. They said that neither alcohol nor drug tests had been performed on crew members, and that they have been allowed to leave Italy.

Prosecutors also said they were also investigating why the captain, an experienced sailor, left the sinking boat while some passengers were still on board.

Besides possible manslaughter charges, the authorities are investigating the possibility of a negligently caused shipwreck.

The bodies of five passengers were found in one cabin, on the left side of the yacht, the authorities said. The five were most likely trying to flee to the higher side of the boat and were probably sleeping when the boat started to sink, they said.

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Dramatic video shows 130ft superyacht sinking off Italy coast after being battered in storm

Nine people rescued before boat went under, article bookmarked.

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Dramatic footage has captured the moment a 40-metre superyacht sank into the Mediterranean sea after being battered in a storm.

The 40-metre-long luxury vessel was sailing from Gallipoli to Milazzo overnight on Saturday when it got into trouble around 15km from Italy’s Catanzaro Marina.

Footage shows the yacht, named My Saga, rapidly disappearing beneath waves, as lifeboats appear to float beside it.

The captain sent out a distress call to the Port Authority of Crotone, with officials told the yacht was taking on a significant amount of water from the stern.

The Italian coastguard dispatched two patrol vessels and rescued all four passengers and five crew members on board.

A tugboat sent out at dawn was unable to save the superyacht from sinking because of worsening weather conditions, the Super Yacht Times reports. The Saga finally sank at around 1pm on Sunday.

The outlet reports the yacht, which was built in Monaco back in 2007, was flying under the Cayman Islands flag with an all-Italian crew when it sunk.

An investigation has been launched into the cause.

It comes after a £6 million superyacht sunk after it went up in flames in the UK on the Torquay harbourside.

The 85ft vessel was consumed by fire , with thick black smoking billowing into the sky.

The yacht reportedly drifted out into the harbour after the fire burnt through ropes securing it to the pier, but the vessel was later secured by the fire service.

A fire service statement revealed that the vessel contained approximately 8000 litres of diesel fuel.

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Sinking of luxury yacht: Experts say Mediterranean sea is growing more dangerous

ROME - The shipwreck of a luxury yacht moored off the coast of Sicily is the latest sign that the Mediterranean is becoming a more dangerous sea to sail in, climate experts and skippers say.

One man died and six people are still missing, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, after the Bayesian, a 56m-long sailboat, was hit by a ferocious storm on Aug 19, sinking in a matter of minutes.

Climatologists say global warming is making such violent and unexpected tempests more frequent in a sea used as a summer playground for millions of tourists, including a wealthy few sailing its waters on superyachts.

Mr Luca Mercalli, president of Italy's meteorological society, said the sea surface temperature around Sicily in the days leading up to the shipwreck was about 30 deg C, almost three degrees more than normal.

"This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms," he told Reuters.

The changes in "Mare Nostrum" (Our Sea), as the ancient Romans called the Mediterranean, are also being noticed by experienced skippers such as Mr Massimo Aramu, who runs the Akua sailing school on the coast near the Italian capital.

Currently sailing around Greece, Mr Aramu said he did not like navigating Italy's Tyrrhenian coast around Sicily or the Spanish Balearic islands because there are "often critical situations with little warning".

Last week, a storm similar to the one that sank the Bayesian hit the Balearic archipelago, which includes the islands of Ibiza and Mallorca, leaving several yachts washed up ashore.

Mr Giuliano Gallo, a former skipper who crossed the Atlantic and has written several books on sailing, said the Mediterranean was becoming more like the Caribbean, which has areas that many boats steer clear of at certain times of the year.

"But things are less predictable in the Mediterranean," he said.

Another sign of the more erratic weather in the Mediterranean was seen a year ago when thousands of people were killed in Libya by flash floods triggered by a so-called medicane - a supercharged Mediterranean storm fuelled by warmer seas.

Mr Karsten Borner, the captain of a boat that was moored alongside the Bayesian but escaped harm, said the Aug 19 storm had been "very violent, very intense, a lot of water and I think a turning system like a tornado".

He also blamed more frequent episodes of intense heat during the summer months for playing a role in causing such storms.

"The water is... way too hot for the Mediterranean and this causes for sure heavy storms, like we had one week ago on the Balearics, like we had two years ago in Corsica and so on," he said. REUTERS

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Video shows 40-metre superyacht sinking off Italy's Catanzaro coast

'my saga' sank on saturday while sailing from gallipoli to milazzo, italian local media reported.

23 August, 2022

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• ENVIRONMENT

A sea tornado just sank a yacht in the Mediterranean. We might be seeing more of them.

A deadly waterspout is strongly suspected of sinking a yacht off the coast of Italy. Scientists weigh in on whether they’ll worsen as the planet warms.

A superyacht carrying 22 people, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, sank off the coast of Palermo, Italy, in the early hours of August 19.  

The 183-foot Bayesian yacht is believed to have been hit by a waterspout —a tornado that forms over the ocean—and some experts are concerned that climate change could worsen these storms in the Mediterranean and other quickly warming waters.

Here’s what you need to know about waterspouts and whether hotter temperatures could cause more of them.

What is a waterspout?

A waterspout is a tornado that forms over water. “The tornado doesn't really care what surface it’s over,” says David Sills, executive director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in Ontario, Canada. “Whether it's a city or a forest or crops or water, the tornado is going to do its thing."  

These columns of rotating air “form where an air boundary exists, for example where warm and cold air collide,” says a spokesperson at the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) via email.

Changes in wind direction at different heights can cause a rotation.

“Imagine just above the ocean, the wind is blowing in one direction,” says Peter Inness , meteorologist at the University of Reading. When the wind higher up blows in another direction, “the air between those two levels of wind starts rotating around the horizontal axis.”

The warm air below rises and these “spinning parcels of air are also lifted and stretched in this process and can concentrate on the surface of the water creating a vortex,” says the BOM.

As the air is sucked upwards into the storm, the spinning intensifies like taking the plug out of the bath, says Innes: “the water going down the plughole rotates very intensely because it's being sucked downwards.”

It’s similar to a figure skater, adds Sills: “When they bring in their arms, and then they spin faster and faster.”  

How dangerous are waterspouts for boats?

Although the wind associated with waterspouts can reach 55 miles per hour, they typically move at under 25 miles per hour, are short-lived, and don’t cause much damage. “They usually only impact any single point for a few minutes,” says the BOM.

The Bayesian was moored overnight when it sank. Although people have attributed this to a waterspout, it’s not yet been confirmed.  

“It was dark and there are no images available,” says Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society , via email.

Boats are designed to right themselves when blown over by strong winds. “Those sailboats have a big, heavy keel so that when you start to go over, it pulls you back up,” says Sills.

But if water gets into the ship, it can lose buoyancy. “It's called a knockdown,” he says. “Time spent over like that means water and waves can get into open doors and it starts to take on water. Then you start to sink.”

The rapid change in wind strength and direction are also dangerous for boats, says Innes, “because it could result in the boat rocking backward and forward very violently.”

Will climate change cause more waterspouts?

One study has found more frequent waterspouts off the coast of Spain’s Balearic Islands when sea surface temperatures are higher, particularly between 73 and 78°F.

This year, “the Mediterranean is [over 5°F] above average,” says Mercalli, which is “an anomaly considered "extreme". These unusually warm waters could be partly due to climate change as well as year-on-year variability.

Some people are concerned that climate change could cause an increase in tornadoes on land and water.

“Global warming will increase all weather extreme events, because it injects more energy into the atmosphere,” says Mercalli.

But experts are wary of confirming a definite link with climate change. “Waterspouts are a very short-lived and local scale phenomena, and therefore difficult to attribute to impacts of climate change,” says the BOM.

The Mediterranean is warming more quickly than the rest of the ocean. Although climate change will make sea surface temperatures warmer, it’s unclear how it will affect the other conditions needed to create waterspouts.

Waterspouts need a temperature difference between air and sea. If the air is warming at the same rate as the bodies of water, an increase in waterspouts is unlikely, says Sills.  

Low pressure is also needed. “Even if the water is really warm, if you've got an area of high pressure over the Mediterranean, you won't get those thunderstorms,” says Inness. “You won't get waterspouts.”

Wind direction also comes into play. In this region, humid air from the north is more likely to cause storms than dry winds coming up from North Africa.    

Due to poor historic data, it’s not possible to confirm that waterspouts are increasing, says Mercalli, “but surely all heavy storms, including thunderstorms that generate strong winds, downbursts, heavy rains and hail are increasing worldwide and in Italy.”

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Breaking news, dramatic video captures the moment superyacht sinks off italian coast.

Dramatic footage has emerged of the moment a 130-foot superyacht capsized off the Italian coast over the weekend, sinking stern-first into the water.

The video, released by the coast guard, showed the yacht named My Saga struggling against the waves before sinking near the Catanzaro Marina on Saturday.

Officials confirmed that nine people were rescued from the sinking vessel.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

Designed by naval architect Tim Heywood , My Saga was built in Italy in 2007. At the time of the incident, the boat was en route from Gallipoli to Milazzo under a Cayman Islands flag.

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clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

Video captures 130-foot superyacht sinking off southern coast of Italy

A superyacht sank off the southern coast of Italy over the weekend of Aug. 20 in a spectacular capsizing captured on video and shared on Twitter by the Italian coast guard.

The video compilation shows the My Saga , a roughly 130-foot boat, struggling against the waves before slowly sinking into the water.

The yacht was sailing from the town of Gallipoli to Milazzo, Sicily, on Aug. 20, local news outlets reported, when it began to take on water and eventually sank some hours later about nine nautical miles off the port of Catanzaro.

All crew members and passengers were rescued and uninjured, the coast guard said on Twitter. It said it launched an investigation to determine what happened.

Nei giorni scorsi, la #GuardiaCostiera di #Crotone ha coordinato operazioni di salvataggio di passeggeri ed equipaggio di uno yacht di 40m, affondato a 9 miglia al largo di #CatanzaroMarina . Avviata inchiesta amministrativa per individuarne le cause. #SAR #AlServizioDegliAltri pic.twitter.com/kezuiivqsM — Guardia Costiera (@guardiacostiera) August 22, 2022

The My Saga first reported a problem on Aug. 20 after setting sail from Gallipoli , on Italy’s southeastern peninsula, according to the country’s National Associated Press Agency (ANSA). Patrol boats from the Italian coast guard in Crotone and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) were dispatched to the scene.

They found the ship taking on water from its stern. Five people — four passengers and a member of the crew — were initially rescued on a Romanian patrol boat acting on behalf of Frontex. They were then transferred to the coast guard boat and taken to Catanzaro.

According to an Italian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of an ongoing investigation, the My Saga flew a Cayman Islands flag and was owned by a Danish company. The group on board when the boat took on water included six Italian nationals, two Danish citizens and a South African national, the person said.

The owner contracted a towing company to attempt to rescue the ship, according to the official. A tugboat, the Alessandro Second, arrived and took the four remaining crew members — including the captain — onboard before beginning to tow the ship toward Crotone. But bad weather made the process difficult, as did the position of the yacht, which was tilted into the water.

Eventually, the tugboat abandoned the yacht, and it sank into the Gulf of Squillace. The coast guard took the remaining crew members to Catanzaro.

It’s not the first time a sinking yacht has captured attention on the internet. In May, rapper Cardi B posted footage on social media of a yacht sinking near her hotel while she was on vacation in an unknown location. The artist could be heard screaming as she asked whether there wasn’t a “big boat that could save it.” Eventually, she said “bye-bye” as it disappeared into the water. She later clarified that no one was onboard .

I can’t believe I’m actually watching a yacht sink pic.twitter.com/dLL3ZJJv9R — Cardi B (@iamcardib) May 28, 2022

The same month, passersby watched as another multimillion-dollar yacht, the Rendezvous, sank in Torquay Harbor, a marina in southwestern England, after a fire broke out onboard. Authorities warned of potential air and water pollution because the yacht carried about nine metric tons of diesel.

And earlier this month, the 145-foot Aria SF caught fire off the Balearic island of Formentera in Spain in an incident that was also captured on camera and shared widely on social media. Those onboard were evacuated, and no one was hurt, the Guardian reported . The roughly $23 million yacht had reportedly just been delivered to its owner.

Chico Harlan contributed to this report.

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Ukraine reportedly strikes ferry crossing in occupied Crimea, boat in Krasnodar Krai, official says

Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

Preliminary reports indicate that Ukraine struck a ferry crossing in the city of Kerch in occupied Crimea overnight on Aug. 16, as well as a boat near the community of Chernomorsk in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa Oblast Military Administration said.

No information was immediately available as to the extent of the damage. It was not immediately clear what boat was struck or whether it was a military target.

Explosions rang out across multiple cities in occupied Crimea overnight on Aug. 16, the Crimean Wind Telegram channel claimed, citing resident reports. A fire was reported near the city of Kerch, in the area of the Kerch ferry crossing.

Residents in Sevastopol, Simferopol, and Kerch heard explosions around 3:30 a.m. local time, according to local media reports.

Multiple explosions were also reported in the community of Chernomorsk in Russia's neighbouring region Krasnodar Krai around 4:30 a.m. local time.

The Kerch bridge , connecting occupied Crimea with mainland Russia, was reportedly closed to traffic around 2 a.m., local residents reported. The bridge reopened around 7 a.m. local time.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that five Ukrainian unmanned aerial drones and two unmanned naval drones were destroyed overnight in the Black Sea.

The Kyiv Independent cannot independently verify any of the claims.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has regularly launched attacks on occupied Crimea as well as neighbouring Krasnodar Krai.

Kyiv's Military Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov warned on Aug. 2 that Ukraine is working on a "complex solution" that could destroy the Kerch Bridge in the coming months. Russia reportedly began fortifying the bridge last month.

Ukraine has regularly struck ferry crossings between occupied Crimea and Russia's Krasnodar Krai, prioritizing the crossing over the bridge in recent months as a more important military target.

Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine published on June 17 that destroying the Kerch Bridge now would not have the same effect now because Russia barely uses it for military purposes anymore.

The bridge accounts for less than a quarter of the total transiting cargo, and for the rest, Russia uses a ferry crossing in Kerch , Pletenchuk said.

Read also: US considering sending Ukraine first long-range cruise missiles this fall, source says

We’ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent .

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Ukraine reportedly strikes ferry crossing in occupied Crimea, boat in Krasnodar Krai, official says

Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

Preliminary reports indicate that Ukraine struck a ferry crossing in the city of Kerch in occupied Crimea overnight on Aug. 16, as well as a boat near the community of Chernomorsk in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa Oblast Military Administration said.

No information was immediately available as to the extent of the damage. It was not immediately clear what boat was struck or whether it was a military target.

Explosions rang out across multiple cities in occupied Crimea overnight on Aug. 16, the Crimean Wind telegram channel claimed, citing resident reports. A fire was reported near the city of Kerch, in the area of the Kerch ferry crossing.

Residents in Sevastopol, Simferopol, and Kerch heard explosions around 3:30 a.m. local time, according to local media reports.

Multiple explosions were also reported in the community of Chernomorsk in Russia's neighbouring region Krasnodar Krai around 4:30 a.m. local time.

The Kerch bridge , connecting occupied Crimea with mainland Russia, was reportedly closed to traffic around 2 a.m., local residents reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that five Ukrainian unmanned aerial drones and two unmanned naval drones were destroyed overnight in the Black Sea.

The Kyiv Independent cannot independently verify the claims.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has regularly launched attacks on occupied Crimea as well as neighbouring Krasnodar Krai.

Kyiv's Military Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov warned on Aug. 2 that Ukraine is working on a "complex solution" that could destroy the Kerch Bridge in the coming months. Russia reportedly began fortifying the bridge last month.

Ukraine has regularly struck ferry crossings between occupied Crimea and Russia's Krasnodar Krai, prioritizing the crossing over the bridge in recent months as a greater military target.

Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine published on June 17 that destroying the Kerch Bridge now would not have the same effect now because Russia barely uses it for military purposes anymore.

The bridge accounts for less than a quarter of the total transiting cargo, and for the rest, Russia uses a ferry crossing in Kerch , Pletenchuk said.

Read also: Kursk Oblast residents evacuated to Russian-occupied Crimea, media says

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Ukrainian officials report attacks on ferry in occupied Crimea and boat in Krasnodar Krai

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Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

According to preliminary reports, Ukrainian forces attacked a ferry in the city of Kerch in the occupied Crimean Peninsula on the night of August 16, as well as a ship near the city of Chernomorsk in the Russian Krasnodar Krai, Odessa regional military administration spokesman Serhiy Burachuk said.

There was no immediate information available about the extent of the damage. It was also not immediately clear which ship was attacked or whether it was a military target.

Citing reports from residents, the Crimean Wind Telegram reported that explosions were heard in several cities in the occupied Crimean peninsula on the night of August 16. A fire was reported near the Kerch Ferry Pier near the city of Kerch.

A fire breaks out near a stone monument in Kerch, occupied Crimea, following an attack by Ukrainian forces, Aug. 16, 2024. (Crimean Wind/Telegram)

According to local media reports, residents of Sevastopol, Simferopol and Kerch heard explosions at around 3:30 a.m. local time.

Several explosions were also reported in Chernomorsk, in Russia’s neighbouring Krasnodar region, at around 4:30 a.m. local time.

Local residents said the Kerch Bridge, which links the occupied Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia, was closed at around 2 a.m. The bridge reopened at around 7 a.m. local time.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that five Ukrainian unmanned aerial drones and two naval unmanned drones were destroyed in the Black Sea overnight.

Kyiv Independent cannot independently verify any of the claims.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has launched regular attacks on the occupied Crimean peninsula and neighbouring Krasnodar Krai.

Kirillo Budanov, head of Kyiv’s military intelligence agency, warned on August 2 that Ukraine was working on a “complex solution” that could result in the destruction of the Kerch bridge in the coming months. Russia reportedly began fortifying the bridge last month.

Ukraine regularly attacks ferries connecting occupied Crimea with Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region and has in recent months prioritised the bridge crossing as a more important military target.

Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said in an interview with RBC Ukraine published on June 17 that destroying the Kerch bridge now would not have the same effect because Russia no longer uses it for military purposes in any significant way.

According to Pletenchuk, the bridge carries less than a quarter of the total cargo passing through the port, with Russia using ferries from Kerch for the rest.

US considering deploying first long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine this fall, sources say

Talks between Ukraine and the administration of US President Joe Biden over the supply of long-range cruise missiles are “at an advanced stage”, a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration told the Kyiv Independent.

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