Russian and Donetsk forces have rescued some 47 civilian sailors stranded on board their ships in the port of Mariupol, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) militia said on Sunday.
“Military personnel of Russia’s Armed Forces and the DPR have de-blockaded 47 crew members from Russia, Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ukraine, who were holed up on board of the ships,” the DPR said in a statement.
The civilian vessels were stranded in the Mariupol port amid the ongoing conflict, as the waterway had been heavily mined by Ukrainian “nationalists,” who used the ships and crews as shields, the DPR noted. The crews have already been brought into a “safe zone,” the militia added, without without naming the evacuated ships.
Earlier in the day, the DPR claimed that two foreign vessels stranded in the Mariupol port had been boarded by “a group of retreating Ukrainian nationalists” from the notorious Azov regiment. The captured vessels are the Lady Augusta, a Jamaican-flagged cargo ship, and the Tsarevna, a Maltese-flagged bulk carrier.
The Ukrainian forces have been firing mortars, grenade launchers, and small arms from the vessels while “holding the crews hostage,” the DPR said. The fate of the crews of the two captured vessels remains unclear.