An 18-year-old Ukrainian unintentionally crossed into Crimean waters after falling asleep on an inflatable raft on the Ukrainian coast and spending three days in open water.
The man, a resident of Ukraine’s Kherson province, dozed off on an inflatable raft on the coast of Lazurnoye, a Ukrainian resort town where he works as a security guard.
The following morning, he woke up in open water in the Black Sea, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.
He was rescued on Aug. 5 in Crimea’s Karkinitsky Bay, after spending almost three days in 40 degrees Celsius heat and without any food or water, the report said, citing Crimea’s border service.
The young man was in a state of extreme fatigue and dehydration and taken to a hospital in the Crimean coastal town of Chernomorskoye.
The authorities have not yet commented on how he will be returned to Ukraine.
Since Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014, relations between Moscow and Kiev have soured and travel from Ukraine to Crimea— once among the most popular tourist destinations for Ukrainians — has become more difficult.