Ukrainian Warship Fights Off Pirate Attack in Gulf of Aden

Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaydachniy (U130) in this 2011 file photo.

A Ukrainian warship has thwarted a pirate attack on a vessel in the Gulf of Aden, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Tuesday.

State run radio broadcaster Radio Ukraine reports that the Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaydachni prevented the November 3 attack on the civilian vessel Manjin Cild in the Gulf of Aden.

“With the Hetman Sahaydachniy frigate approaching the vessel Manjin Cild at a distance of 35 cables, a high-speed watercraft stopped the persecution of the above ship and disappeared,” the report says according to the Radio Ukraine report.

The report adds that, according to the ministry, the civilian ship appealed for help from the Ukrainian Navy frigate, currently on a tour with NATO’s Ocean Shield counter-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden and off the Horn of Africa.

“The crew was ready to fulfill the assigned tasks and assist the civilian ship. This is the first actual operation of the national contingent as part of the counter-piracy mission in the Horn of Africa,” Hetman Sahaydachniy commander, Captain Roman Piatnytskiy, said according to the Radio Ukraine report.

The number of pirate attacks off the coast of Somali has steadily decreased over the last two years since peaking in 2011, with just 5 vessel attacked this year, according to data from EU NAVFOR.

The Hetman Sahaydachniy has been patrolling the waters off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden since joining Operation Ocean Shield in October, according to RIA Novosti.

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