A crew member of the tanker Mariner returned to Crimea and told about the seizure of the vessel

Maxim Karpenko, a crew member of the tanker Mariner, returned to Kerch on February 1 after the vessel was detained by the US military in the North Atlantic.

According to RIA Novosti, Karpenko arrived in Crimea by train from Moscow, where he flew from Istanbul. He was greeted by his family and the press at the Kerch train station. He said that the US military had been chasing the tanker for more than two weeks, and the crew was mentally prepared for a possible seizure, given the situation with other ships coming from Venezuela.

"They came and went, honked, and there were different maneuvers. Of course, we were preparing, and when we saw on the radar that there were already three steamers there, we realized that this was it..."We were surrounded by a bunch of helicopters, I think there were nine of them, and the Americans and the British landed and captured us. <...> The assault was impressive, of course," Karpenko said.

He explained that there was no cargo on the ship, and the tanker was flying the Russian flag. After the capture of the ship, he was sent to the waters of Scotland, where the crew, consisting of 28 people, was held captive for 20 days, spending this time on the floor in the galley.

"We slept on the floor, went to the toilet under vending machines, and bathed once every four days. They didn't bully me when I asked for a pill (if I was unwell. – Ed.) ignored, the request for a consul was also ignored," Karpenko said.

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on January 28 that two Russian sailors from the crew of the Marinera tanker seized by the United States had been released and were on their way to Russia. Until the moment of capture, the vessel was located about 200-300 km south of the coast of Iceland and was heading towards Murmansk.

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