Officers of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) were acting normally when they were seizing the Russian tanker in the port of Izmail, they were speaking Russian, they were not rude toward the crew of the vessel and did not raise any claims, chief engineer of the vessel, Sergey Karpov, told reporters on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th July, 2019) Officers of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) were acting normally when they were seizing the Russian tanker in the port of Izmail, they were speaking Russian, they were not rude toward the crew of the vessel and did not raise any claims, chief engineer of the vessel, Sergey Karpov, told reporters on Friday.
All the ten crew members of the detained tanker arrived in Moscow early on Friday, while the vessel, which the SBU seized on Thursday over its alleged involvement in the November Kerch Strait incident that led to Russia seizing three Ukrainian vessels for violating the country's borders, remained in Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry is looking into the incident.
"[Officers of the] SBU arrived and started the check. They questioned us. They were acting normally, they were not rude, there was no violence. Everything was normal," Karpov told reporters, stressing that there was no "tension" during the conversation.
He specified that the SBU officers had been speaking Russian.
"When did you enter the vessel, where have you come from, how long have you been traveling, how did you get here? The questions were standard," Karpov added.
The engineer also said that the crew members had been able to move freely around the vessel.
"They communicated with us during an hour and then said that they had no claims against the crew, in principle," Karpov noted.
According to Karpov, all the seafarers wish to come home. He plans to have a rest in Novorossiysk and then start looking for a new job.
"This was my first and my last time at that vessel," Karpov said, adding that he had found himself in such a situation for the first time in spite of having worked in the sphere for 40 years.
On November 25, 2018, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and detained 24 crew members after they failed to respond to a demand to stop. After the incident, a criminal case on illegal border crossing was opened in Russia.
