28 crew of stranded Bangladeshi vessel seek help

Left devastated by the death of a fellow sailor before their eyes, 28 surviving Bangladeshi crews of the ill-fated ship are making desperate calls for evacuation from the port of Olvia in war-torn Ukraine.

The video calls for help got louder on Thursday, a day after Md. Hadisur Rahman, third engineer of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) vessel Banglar Samriddhi, were killed in a rocket attack on Wednesday.

The stranded crew members have sent video messages through social media seeking help to their loved ones in Bangladesh from the war-torn region.

In a 27-second video, a sailor Rabiul Alam said, “I am the second engineer of Banglar Samriddhi. Our ship came under a rocket attack and we lost one of our crew members. We are now running on emergency power supply as there is no power in the ship. We are on the verge of death.”

“We have not been rescued yet. Please save us. We did not get help from anyone. Save us,” he cried.

Another crew Asiful Islam called for their immediate rescue through a video saying that the information that they were going to a safer place was incorrect.

Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) Executive Director Pijush Dutta told UNB on Thursday that 28 crew members, including two women, are currently on board the vessel stranded in the Ukrainian port after a rocket attack on Wednesday.

So far, no assistance has been received yet to rescue them safely. However, it is known that the other crew members on the ship are unhurt and doing well, he added.

Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in Dhaka on Thursday said the Russian side "bends every effort" to ensure safe departure of the Bangladeshi ship stranded in a Ukrainian port.

The Command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, 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, said the embassy.

"The ship caught fire at 9.25pm (Bangladesh time, 5.25pm in Ukraine) as the rocket struck its bridge. The crew members were able to tame the flames immediately. But Hadisur,47, lost his life," said Captain Md Anam Chowdhury, president of the Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers' Association.

Amid the worrying development in Ukraine, Banglar Samriddhi got stuck at the Port of Olvia, located in the Mykolaiv region on the left bank of the Dnipro-Bug estuary on the northern Black Sea coast.

Banglar Samriddhi had been anchored at the port before the Russian invasion began on February 24, Omar Faruque Tuhin, a crew member of the ship, told UNB over the phone on February 27.

Banglar Samriddhi, now caught in the fighting in Ukraine, reached Olvia on February 22 to load ball clay, according to the BSC.

As the conflict between Ukraine and Russia escalated, the BSC cancelled the plan and asked the master of the vessel to make his way towards international waters.