DPR says its attempts to reach out to Bulgaria about saved seamen went unanswered - TASS

The Foreign Ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic sent a diplomatic note to Bulgaria that Bulgarian seamen were saved from the Tsarevna ship and can be returned home but it went unanswered, Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Rossiya-24 television.

"We have officially sent an official letter, a note, to the embassy of Bulgaria and, what’s more, we called the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to say the seamen had been saved, evacuated and can be brought back home," she said. "We, and the seamen, have so far received no answer."

Nikonorova described the lack of reaction by the government of Bulgaria a demonstration of a Russophobic policy. She said there are fake news reports that Ukrainian nationalists allegedly hadn’t seized the Tsarevna and that the Bulgarian seamen went missing. The minister stated the seamen are put up in a Donetsk hotel and are provided with meals but they have no clue about how they will be able to get home.

Ukrainian forces from the Azov nationalist battalion seized ships, including foreign ones, in the port of Mariupol. On April 11, DPR People's Militia and Russian armed forces evacuated 47 crew members, including citizens of Russia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Syria, and Ukraine. Later, the release of the crew of the Tsarevna cargo ship, including 14 Bulgarian and one Ukrainian citizen, which had been seized by Ukrainian security forces, was reported. On April 13, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov reported that the Mariupol commercial port had been fully liberated and all hostages held by Azov aboard ships in the port had been released. The Bulgarian government has said it will tell the story of the operation to liberate the seamen after they return home.

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