A dozen Ukrainian sailors have managed to get themselves and their hijacked vessel out of the hands of Somali pirates, Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Ruslan Demchenko said here Monday.
"It happened due to successful teamwork of the sailors who did not allow pirates to change the route toward the Somali coast," he said in a statement, Xinhua reported.
When pirates boarded their Panama-flagged cargo ship MV Lugela on Saturday in the Somali Basin, about 900 nautical miles east of the Somali coast, the 12 Ukrainians, who formed the entire crew, blocked themselves in the engine room with sufficient drinking water and food, according to Demchenko.
"The pirates held an unmanaged ship almost for two nights" before abandoning it in the early morning Monday, he added.
After checking the technical condition of the vessel, the crew continued their sailing from Egypt to Mauritius, he said.