With the Russian navy laying mines and blockading Ukrainian ports, the Black Sea may seem unlikely cruising grounds right now, but that is not stopping one Russian company from launching a new cruise service in these hotly contested waters.
The 38,500-gt Astoria Grande (built 1996) will set sail from the Russian port of Sochi on 16 July on its first cruise since being sold in August 2021 by Carnival subsidiary AIDA Cruises as Aidacara to a Cyprus-registered ship management company.
