“We are hostages here”: 67 Russian civilian sailors are being held in Ukraine

67 Russian sailors, who have been held hostage in Ukraine since February, turned to the President of the Russian Federation with a request to exchange them and return them to their homeland as soon as possible.

At least five Russians require medical assistance, including to prevent another heart attack.

For the entire time during which the sailors are blocked in the Ukrainian port, 20 people have so far managed to return to Russia on an exchange basis.

Directly to the President

Eight Russian ships were blocked in the port of Izmail with the start of a special military operation.

All of them were located on the territory of the shipyard.

Thus, the dry cargo ship Volgo-Balt 244 arrived at the port for a scheduled repair on February 7.

As the senior assistant to the captain of the cargo ship Alexander Dragalev told RT, at the end of the month the ship was supposed to go to Russia.

By that time, the crew members had been at sea for several months.

“On the 24th everything changed.

The shipyard was closed, and border guards were posted in the port.

We were immediately forbidden to go ashore, only the captain and the chief engineer on work issues,” he says.

In March, armed members of the Security Service of Ukraine came to the ships, Dragalyov continues.

They checked all the ships, phones and correspondence of the Russians - if there was anything suspicious.

“Then they behaved quite aggressively: they said, they should shoot us, take us to the Black Sea, so that ours would drown us.

But that was the only time.

In general, the attitude towards us here is normal, ”says Dragalev.

Sailors are still forbidden to go ashore, other Russian ships can only be crossed when accompanied by armed border guards.

In the morning and in the evening, the Ukrainian security forces conduct a formation with a roll call and check every sailor's passport.

Sailors cannot buy food, medicines or other necessary things: rubles are not accepted here, and bank cards have stopped working.

According to Dragalyov, many sailors are morally exhausted.

“We were working on the ship until February 7, when we arrived at the port.

And work at sea is specific, very difficult from a psychological point of view.

For example, among us there are people who have been working since September.

That is, it will soon be a year since they are on the ship!

- says the interlocutor of RT.

- Uncertainty is very exhausting.

We are in touch with Russian representatives, but so far they cannot tell us if there is any progress in negotiations on our return home.”

He added that the crews turned to various Russian structures for help, but "received almost the same answers" that their names were on the lists for a possible exchange.

The sailors decided to appeal directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The crew filmed a video of the appeal and posted it online.

At the same time, the sailors admitted that after the video was published on the network, their phones could be taken away: “In fact, they can do anything to us.

We are hostages here, we have no special rights.”

Threat to life and health

As RT found out, among Russian sailors there are those who need medical supervision, but it is impossible to provide normal medical care to people in conditions of imprisonment on ships.

Oleg Chernyshev, the captain of the Omsky-132 dry cargo ship, said that at least three people in his crew are seriously ill and he fears not only for their health, but also for their lives.

At the end of June, a doctor had to be urgently called on board for the second mechanic, who suffers from heart disease.

“Sergey was given injections, put on droppers, and was given pills to bring him to his senses and stabilize him.

They said that he should be under constant observation and he needs to have a full examination.

The doctor warned that another such attack could cause a stroke.

And he has three small children in his family, the eldest is not even seven years old, ”said Chernyshev.

"Omsky-132" is not on the water, but in the dock, where there is no ventilation.

Under the summer sun, the iron of the dock and the ship itself is heated to very high temperatures.

“Heat, closeness, hail of sweat.

Beds are all damp at night,” he added.

The second mate on the dry cargo ship suffers from exhaustion: in two and a half months he has lost 18 kg, he can hardly sleep.

Another crew member who had an operation to remove his gallbladder a year ago now suffers from constant pain and is forced to take medication.

Other ships also have sailors who need medical attention, Oleg Chernyshev added.

So, in early July, at least two men who are on different ships began to suffer from mental disorders, including memory loss and a sense of reality.

"Kept like an exchange fund"

Since February, out of 87 civilian sailors blocked in the port of Izmail, 20 people have been returned to Russia.

The first official exchange took place in early May, when 11 sailors returned to Russia from the Avangard dry cargo ship, which arrived from Greece for repairs in December 2021.

“Probably, we cannot be called prisoners.

They didn't bully us, they didn't beat us.

Rather, we were hostages.

During the exchange, a group of military men was attached to us.

Here they had a hard time: many had broken ribs.

They said that they were tortured with electric shock, ”RIA Novosti quotes the words of senior assistant captain Anatoly Krivyakov after returning home.

In addition, in May, a second exchange almost took place, but everything fell through for an unknown reason.

This was told to RT by the captain of one of the ships, Eduard Rykov.

“In mid-May, three crews, including mine, were put on buses and taken towards the Zaporozhye region, they said that they were ready to exchange us.

We drove 200 kilometers, and then the buses turned around, they said that it was restless on the line of contact,” he says.

According to Rykov, no more attempts were made to exchange the three crews of the ships again.

At the same time, as RT interlocutors reported, in June they managed to unofficially take out nine members of the Russian crews: all women, most of whom worked on ships as cooks, and two older men.

According to the sailors, on July 28 they were visited by representatives of the Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine.

They came to the Russians after a direct appeal from Tatyana Moskalkova, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation.

Officials said there are now 200 Ukrainian civilians in Mariupol, including sailors, for whom Ukraine is ready to exchange Russians.

RT sent a request to the office of the commissioner with a request to comment on the prospects for an exchange with the Ukrainian side.

At the time of publication, no response had been received.

On June 23, Tatyana Moskalkova told reporters that she had not yet been able to agree on the terms of the exchange with the Ukrainian authorities.

According to her, the Russian side asked Ukraine to release the sailors without any conditions.

“It is impossible to exchange them for military personnel, this is an unequal exchange, as well as for civilians who have committed certain offenses.

These people have done nothing wrong either to Ukraine or to Ukrainian society.

They are actually held as an exchange fund.

This, of course, is undemocratic, anti-human and contrary to all norms of both laws and morality,” the Russian Ombudsman said.