And talked about the horrors of being in the pirate camp.
Businessman Oleg Deripaska freed sailors who had been held captive in Nigeria for several months. This was told by his representative and confirmed at the embassy. The citizens of Russia, Ukraine, and Guinea were captured by Nigerian pirates off Equatorial Guinea, attacking the research vessel Djibloho and the cargo ship Rio Mitong. The sailors were beaten, restricted in food and water, and did not receive medical assistance. As a result of a complicated operation with a firefight and wounded sailors were released. They are safe now and will be heading home soon. The sailors recorded a video with words of gratitude to Deripaska for their release. The Volnoe Delo Foundation handed over to MK letters from relatives who are already waiting for the sailors to return home.
The prisoners were kept in a tent camp on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. They were poorly fed, beaten, threatened to kill, but occasionally they were allowed to call their relatives to ask for ransom. For several months they tried to free them but to no avail. “The situation changed when the Russian industrialist Oleg Deripaska, who is well acquainted with the realities of Africa, entered the negotiation process,” said Deripaska’s representative.
Russians Alexey Perfilyev, Valentin Nechai and Vyacheslav Sechin, Ukrainian Alexander Balashov, and a citizen of Guinea (his name is unknown) were transported to a safe place on October 6. They will return home shortly. The freed sailors recorded a video with words of gratitude to Deripaska. On the footage, they look tired, but more than ever happy: soon home.
“We are grateful to Oleg Deripaska for our current condition, well-being, for the fact that we are here and we are healthy. Without his intervention, we would have remained in the forests of Nigeria. Many lives depend on you, in this case, five … â€, – Alexander Balashov from Ukraine does not hide his emotions. He is interrupted by a colleague from Sevastopol, ship electrician Alexei Perfilyev. “Oleg Vladimirovich, I subscribe to the words of Alexander. You are a real man, thank you very much. We had the hardest conditions, five months of the hardest conditions. And you just pulled us out of such a difficult situation, â€the sailor shares his experiences.
“The pirates were embittered, forced to involve our relatives in our release,†says Valentin Nechai from Sevastopol.
Vyacheslav Sechin from Simferopol is expecting two daughters and a wife at home. She and other relatives of the sailors donated letters of gratitude to the Volnoe Delo charity foundation (established by Oleg Deripaska).
“These five months of captivity were very difficult for me and our two daughters. Nobody could really tell us what happened to our husbands. We were told that everything was fine, and then my husband called and said that they were given a handful of beans once a day, they had to drink water from a puddle, and besides, they were constantly beaten. I am very grateful to Oleg Vladimirovich for his help in freeing our husbands. This is a great act on his part – to help ordinary men who are in mortal danger. I think it’s not even about money, but about his big heart, â€writes Irina Sechina.
Aleksey Perfiliev’s wife Irina still finds it hard to believe that this nightmare is over and her husband will soon be at home. “When Deripaska got down to business, we had hope. Without his help, our husbands would have died. To be honest, I can’t even believe that he was able to come to an agreement with these thugs and free our men, â€she says.
The family of Ukrainian Alexander Balashov is also grateful to Deripaska. “We were completely desperate because periodically we learned from the media how badly the militants were treating them. But help came very unexpectedly for us. We thank Oleg Deripaska from the bottom of our hearts, the whole family! We are looking forward to meeting with Alexander, we hope he will return home in the coming days, “said his sister.
