28 stranded Bangladeshi sailors move to safer place: FS

The 28 sailors of a Bangladeshi ship named 'Banglar Samriddhi' that stranded in Ukraine amid the armed conflict have been moved to safer place Thursday, foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen said.

He revealed the latest development of the ship, that came under a missile attack on Wednesday leaving one Bangladeshi sailor death, to reporters at foreign ministry Thursday afternoon. The foreign ministry through Bangladesh embassy in Poland arranged the evacuation of the stranded sailors with the support of local authority.

The ministry has the plan to evacuate the ship crews a well as take the dead body of sailor Hadisur Rahman to any bordering country from Ukraine, foreign ministry official said.

Meanwhile, Russia today said it regretted the death of a sailor onboard a Bangladeshi ship in Ukraine amid the armed conflict there and assured Dhaka of making "every effort" to ensure the ship's safe departure of the vessel. "We express deep condolences to the near and dear ones of the deceased," the Russian embassy said in a statement.

Without elaboration, the statement said the "circumstances of the incident are being established" as Bangladeshi sailor Hadisur Rahman, the third engineer of MV Banglar Samriddhi, was killed as the vessel was anchored at Ukraine's Olvia Port.

But it claimed that Russia's armed forces command "relying on the objective monitoring data, has repeatedly stated that, during the retreat, the Ukrainian nationalists open indiscriminate fire and deliberately capture hostages, use them as a 'human shield', resorting to the well-known terrorists' tactic".

Earlier, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) executive director Dr Pijush Dutta told media that they were working relentlessly to rescue the sailors. He added that they were also scrutinizing the international maritime laws to negotiate about their safe departure.

Dutta said Hadisur Rahman was killed in a missile attack, which immediately sparked a fire on the ship at the Ukrainian port at 9:25 pm last night but the remaining 28 crew members of the ship were safe and managed to douse the blaze immediately.

Hadisur Rahman was working as the third engineer of the ship since 2018 after graduating from Bangladesh Marine Academy. The official said the ship was scheduled to move out of the port before the attack, but could not leave it due to delay in getting port authorities clearance and got stranded amid halted port operations.

He said BSC was satisfied with the performance of the ill-fated Bangladeshi flagged carrier vessel's captain and crew as they tried their best to reduce the damage risking their lives.