MOSCOW – Seven Russian sailors finally returned to shore yesterday after three days trapped in a mini-submarine in the depths of the Pacific, but Russia’s relief at their rescue was clouded by embarrassment that the country’s navy was unable to save the crew without foreign help.

Assisted by American divers, a British remote-controlled Scorpio undersea vehicle cut the submarine loose from undersea cables that had ensnared it at a depth of 625 feet during an exercise off the Kamchatka Peninsula on Russia’s Pacific Coast. The sub was able to surface on its own and crew members were taken aboard a Russian ship, where doctors declared them to be in satisfactory health. Russian television showed images of the crew walking off a gangplank as they returned to shore and the sub’s commander, Vyacheslav Milashevsky, held a long and solemn salute to the crowd gathered to greet them.

Unlike the Kursk tragedy of exactly five years ago, Moscow did not hesitate to call for foreign assistance this time, and both America and Japan had also been sending equipment to the rescue site, though it didn’t arrive in time to be used. All 118 sailors aboard died after on-board explosions crippled the Kursk, sending it to the bottom of the Barents Sea.

Russian navy officials heaped praise on the international rescuers, who had joined their efforts after Russian ships had failed in attempts to drag the submarine closer to shallower waters. They said only half a day’s air supply remained in the sub before it was rescued.

The defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, who President Putin yesterday ordered to conduct an investigation into the accident, praised the international efforts, saying: “We have seen in deeds, not in words, what the brotherhood of the sea means.”

Russia’s once-mighty navy has suffered a series of accidents since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Experts say the navy remains drastically underfunded and worry that accidents are becoming more likely. Mr. Putin had promised to upgrade the navy’s training and equipment after the Kursk disaster but this latest accident seemed to indicate little had improved. This accident was especially embarrassing as it came before a major sea-air exercise planned with neighboring China this month to showcase Russian military strength. Ships began to leave yesterday to take part in that exercise.