An international anti-piracy watchdog group said Saturday that armed pirates on Friday seized a Greek chemical tanker with 19 crew members in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia.
The tanker, carrying a cargo of refined petroleum from Europe to the Middle East, was ambushed, chased and fired upon, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.
In the telephone conversation on Life.ru, the man issued what sounded like a coded call for help, repeating part of the Russian word for
'seals' twice.
The 530-foot cargo ship Faina was seized Thursday. Ukraine's defense chief said Friday that it was carrying 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial quantity of ammunition and spare parts. Russia's navy said it dispatched a warship to the area, and U.S naval ships were monitoring the situation.
Nobody aboard the Faina was injured, but the captain, Vladimir Kolobkov, was suffering from heatstroke and his condition was "not so good," the man in the report said. He identified himself as Vladimir Nikolsky, the captain's senior assistant, and said the hijackers demanded that he speak only in English.
"They asking that we make contact with the owners about his money," Nikolsky said. Asked how much they were demanding, he said: "I'm not sure, approximately
- I cannot say he exact price." He suggested the hijackers indicated that would be matter for negotiations.
"They would like to speak directly to our owner," he said later.
Ukrainian news agencies have identified the ship's operator as Tomex Team, a company based in the Black Sea port of Odessa. A person who answered the phone at the company's office on Saturday declined to comment and refused to give his name.
Kenyan Defense Department spokesman Bogita Ongeri said on Saturday that Kenyan authorities have had no contact with the pirates or received any demands for ransom.
Ongeri said that the Ukrainian vessel was seized in international waters in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. He said that the pirates hijacked the ship beyond 200 nautical miles away from the coast of the northeastern Somali region of Puntland. Two hundred nautical miles in maritime law mark the end of a country's territorial waters.
It was unclear exactly when the conversation with Nikolsky took place, and phone calls to Life.ru were not answered.
Speaking in imperfect English, Nikolsky said he had recently spoken to the captain of what he said was a U.S. Coast Guard ship, who asked about the situation aboard the Faina.
"I tell him that everything in normal condition," he said.
While Ukrainian officials had said there were 21 people aboard - 17 Ukrainian, three Russian and a Latvian
- Nikolsky said there were 21 crew and a total of 35 people aboard. Life.ru showed images of Russian passports for both Nikolsky and the captain, Kolobkov.
