Ukrainian cargo ship crew rescues Russian sailors who were shipwrecked while attempting to circumnavigate the globe

Ukrainian cargo ship crew rescues Russian sailors who were shipwrecked while attempting to circumnavigate the globe
March 21, 2023 https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/03/21/ukrainian-cargo-ship-crew-rescue...

The Russian Ocean Way is a trimaran whose Russian crew is attempting to sail around the entire globe. On March 16, the boat was shipwrecked off the coast of Chile. Unable to repair the ship’s damaged steering mechanism, the sailors sent out a distress signal. They soon received a response from the Sounion, a cargo ship whose captain lived in Mariupol until he was forced to leave by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Last week, Ukrainian seamen rescued the crew of a Russian sailboat called the Russian Ocean Way that was shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean while attempting to sail around the world, according to the Radio Europe/Radio Free Liberty affiliate Sibir.Realii.

The Russian seafarers set sail in July 2021 from Kronstadt and have since traveled more than 13,000 nautical miles, sailing along the coasts of 13 different countries.

In late February 2023, the Russian Ocean Way departed from the Chilean port city of Talcahuano, and in mid-March, the craft was caught in a storm that badly damaged its steering mechanism. The sailors soon realized they would not be able to repair their boat themselves, and on March 16, they sent out a distress signal. They got a response from a ship called the Sounion, a dry cargo craft with a crew made up of Ukrainian and Filipino members.

It took about five hours for the Sounion to find the Russian Ocean Way, and transferring the crew of the Russian Ocean Way to the larger ship took several more hours due to rough waves. After the sailors were safely aboard the cargo ship, the Sounion took the trimaran in tow. That’s when the Russians learned they had been rescued by Ukrainians.

“I felt that I was in a place where race and nationality don’t exist, where others will help you regardless of the language you speak, the color of your skin, or the shape of your eyes. At sea, we’re all the same distance from God — the distance of an outstretched hand,” Stanislav Berezkin, the captain of the Russian Ocean Way, told journalists.

According to Berezkin, he tries not to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine with the Ukrainian crew. The captain of the Sounion said that he’s originally from Mariupol, but after the start of the full-scale war, he was forced to leave the city to escape Russia’s siege. “We didn’t ask anybody else about it. It’s a bad topic,” Berezkin said. The Sounion’s captain asked journalists not to use his name.