As a result of a pirate attack on the Tommi Ritscher ship, a citizen of Ukraine has been captured and taken to an unknown destination, said Director of the Consular Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Serhiy Pohoreltsev.
“According to preliminary information, as a result of the attack, a Ukrainian citizen, a member of the ship’s crew, has been captured and taken to an unknown destination,” he said in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine on April 21.
According to Pohoreltsev, the Ukrainian Embassy in Germany received a message on April 20 that a pirate attack on the Tommi Ritscher, IMO 9656137, the flag of Portugal, and the operator of the ship Transeste Schiffahrt Gmbh (Germany) had been carried out off the coast of Benin.
He emphasized that the ship’s operator company had created a crisis headquarters. The Consulate General of Ukraine in Hamburg came into contact with the ship’s operator in order to clarify the circumstances of the case. The Embassy of Ukraine in Nigeria (responsible for Benin) appealed to the Benin competent authorities in order to confirm the fact of the capture of a citizen of Ukraine.
Pohoreltsev also assured that the case is under the control of the involved foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine and the Department of Consular Services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As media reported earlier, pirates attacked the Tommi Ritscher container ship, anchored near the city of Cotonou (Benin). Among the crew members of the ship there are also citizens of the Russian Federation, Bulgaria and the Philippines.
