Telephone communication resumed with Ariana crewmembers, says Ukraine Foreign Ministry

17:10

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has established effective coordination of activities aimed at releasing the Ariana vessel and its Ukrainian crew, which have been held hostage by Somali pirates since May 2, the ministry's press service said on Friday.

"During telephone conversations we learned that all the members of the crew are alive, their health condition is satisfactory, and the situation on the ship is stable," the statement reads.

The ministry is also trying to find a way to provide necessary medical assistance to an ill woman - a member of the Ariana's crew - al;though the pirates are currently against bringing medicine to the ship, the Foreign Ministry said.

Yesterday, on November 5, after the ministry managed to resume telephone communication with the Ukrainian sailors, Foreign Minister Petro Poroshenko personally talked with their families.

The Foreign Ministry is in contact daily with the relatives of the captives, the press service said.

As reported, Somali pirates seized the Ariana, a Maltese-flagged ship operated by Greece's Alloceans Shipping Cо. Ltd, in the Gulf of Aden on May 2, 2009. All of the 24 crewmembers are citizens of Ukraine. Most of them are residents of Odesa. The ship was heading from Brazil with 35,000 tonnes of soybeans on board.