Media Visit On Board Ukrainian Frigate Hetman Sagaidachniy

Jan 22, 2014 - 09:16
EU Naval Force frigate Hetman Sagaidachniy and her crew began their second patrol in the Gulf of Aden after a short port visit and a media brief in Djibouti.

On 19 January during her departure from the port of Djibouti, the Ukrainian frigate was visited by journalists from the leading Ukrainian TV channel Inter.

During the visit journalists had a tour of the warship and met members of the frigate’s ships company. They were briefed about the ship's capabilities and experiences in Operation Atalanta.

The journalists also interviewed commander of the Ukrainian Contingent in EU Naval Force, Rear Admiral Andrii Tarasov and Commanding Officer of the ship, Commander Roman Pyatnytskiy asking them about experiences at sea in the first Ukrainian deployment in the EU counter-piracy operation.

Rear Admiral Tarasov remarked, “It has been a long time at sea, the ship remains fully operational and the crewmembers keep a high level of morale”

“We are very pleased to be part of EU Naval Force and contribute to the multi-national mission in the region. As we have seen from recent events, the pirates are still active and we must work hard to prevent acts of piracy and to protect vulnerable shipping in the region.”

The Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sagaidachny joined Operation Atalanta on 3rd January directly after a successful deployment with the NATO counter piracy mission, Operation Ocean Shield. Currently EU Naval Force has five naval assets in Gulf of Aden and participation of the Ukrainian Navy has been a valuable contribution to the operation.