Ukrainian Crew Back Home After Pirates Free Ship

By MARIA DANILOVA
KIEV, Ukraine, February 13, 2009 — Twenty tired, joyful sailors stepped off a plane into the arms of tearful wives and loved ones Friday after months in the hands of Somali pirates who hijacked their ship and its cargo of heavy weaponry.
The celebration at Kiev's airport ended a long and frightening ordeal for the surviving crew of the MV Faina — 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and a Latvian — and a nail-biting wait for their relatives back home. Pirates seized the Faina off the Horn of Africa on Sept. 25 and released it last week, speeding off in skiffs with a $3.2 million ransom dropped to the deck by parachute.
"We wanted to live, and we survived," said crew member Olexandr Prisukha, 44, as he left Boryspil Airport's VIP terminal after embracing his wife, Olena, 41. "We're grateful to everyone who took part in our rescue."
Like most of the sailors, he was tanned but tired and looked frail in a camouflage-patterned coat.
"Everybody I wanted to see is right here," said Pavel Blinov, gripping his wife's hand.
For Prisukha, relief at his release mixed with anger that the arms-laden ship was sent to ply dangerous waters with no escort and no means of protection against pirates.
"It is shameful that we had nothing to defend ourselves with," he said.
Prisukha said the pirates treated their captives roughly for the first month or so.
"They had this idea: 'We're bored, we want to have fun, and the crew is our fun,'" he said.
But the pirates eased up as time passed and told the sailors they were being treated more gently than other captives. He said one told him the pirates "'usually beat up Turks and Greeks.'"
"But they didn't have this attitude toward us; they got sick and we treated them," he said.
President Viktor Yushchenko joined family members who greeted the sailors, but many relatives have accused him of ignoring their plight during the ordeal.
The Faina's Russian captain died of a suspected heart attack shortly after the hijacking. Prisukha said the crew were very grateful for the professional conduct of acting captain Viktor Nikolsky, also Russian.
Nikolsky sought to lower the ransom demands by "explaining to the pirates that the cargo is not new, the tanks are old," Priushka said.
At the airport, Nikolsky said that as the ordeal dragged on, he and the rest of the crew sometimes lost hope and feared for their lives.
He spoke English with the pirates and also learned some Somali phrases, including: "I will be happy when the ship puts out to sea."
"It was scary," said another crewman, Olexiy Kharkalup. "Fear is only human."
The seizure of the Faina raised fears that its cargo of 33 T-72 tanks and other weapons could fall into the hands of pirates, terrorists or armed factions in failed state of Somalia. U.S. Navy vessels quickly surrounded the Faina to make sure the pirates did not try to unload the weapons, and a stepped-up international campaign against piracy has brought ships from nations including Russia, China, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and South Korea to the area.
The nature of the cargo also raised questions about its destination. Ukrainian and Kenyan officials, as well as the ship's owner, say the cargo belongs to Kenya and have vehemently denied speculation it was destined for southern Sudan, something the autonomous region has also denied.
Waiting nervously for the plane from Kenya to land and bring back her husband, Tetyana Pylypenko, said about 15 of the sailors were kept crammed in a single small room most of the time and occasionally allowed to walk on the deck outside.
"All that matters now is that they are alive and they are coming home," said Pylypenko, whose husband Oleh, 41, was mechanic on the ship. She had last seen him seven months ago, before the ship sailed from Odessa on the Black Sea.
She said her husband has been a sailor since he was 17 and she is certain he will remain one.
"I know he will return to the sea, there is no point in arguing," she said.
Source: AP
 

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