As Ukraine Evacuates Trapped Seafarers, Foreign Mariners Count Cost of War
Bangladeshi seafarer Asiful Islam recalls the moment when a missile struck his cargo ship last week off the Ukrainian port of Olvia, killing his crew mate.
"I was just 15 feet away when it hit our ship. Our third engineer, Hadisur Rahman, who was killed, was standing just two feet away," Islam told Reuters from Romania after the remaining crew members were evacuated over the weekend.
"All we could do was pray out loud. It was the worst night of my life. I had never been to war zone in my life."
Many shipping firms have suspended sailings to affected Black Sea ports and other terminals in Ukraine. Insurance premiums for voyages have soared since Russia's invasion on February 24, an action Moscow calls a "special operation".
Merchant shipping crew members of several nations are also among the 1.7 million people the United Nations says who have fled or been evacuated from Ukraine since the invasion.
https://www.marinelink.com/news/ukraine-evacuates-trapped-seafarers-494823