Seafarers Captured From Cargo Ship And Taken To Unknown Location in Mariupol Port
Russia’s military troops had seized the crew members of a Liberian-flagged vessel dubbed SMARTA on the territory of Mariupol Commercial Sea Port. They had taken it away to an unknown destination. The information was shared by Ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova.
She mentioned in a statement that per preliminary data, the crew members had been taken toward Donetsk, which is temporarily occupied.
There were 18 people from Ukraine, and 1 from Egypt. No contact could be established with the crew and the captain’s wife. Before the ship had been captured, Russia’s forces shelled the vessel.
Per the ombudsman, the dry cargo carrier had reached the port of Mariupol on 21 February and was supposed return to Turkey, however, owing to Russia’s military aggression, the vessel was not granted permission and was moored at the Mariupol seaport.
Per LB.ua news, the shelling of civil vessels has become a common practice for the russian occupants. As a result of repeated missile hits, the occupants sank the freighter vessel dubbed Helt that had a flag of Panama, a tanker named Millennial Spirit, which had a flag of Moldova was also hit, bulk carriers named Namura Queen та and Lord Nelson that were flying a flag of Panama was subject to shelling while on anchorage in the northern part of the Black sea. These had been severely impaired.
Reference: en.lb.ua