Commercial ships have become one of the few places where Russians and Ukrainians, who make up 15% of the world’s 1.9 million sailors, still live side-by-side on worldwide routes while the country’s country their war broke out. Some ships have become rare havens of understanding and forgiveness. On other ships, the mood became tense and at times unbearable, eroding the maritime tradition of sailors treating each other as comrades, regardless of their backgrounds.
With the global maritime industry already short of commercial sailors, and particularly reliant on sailors from Russia and Ukraine, who tend to be highly skilled, some companies have shifted crews to lower their costs. Heat stress on board.
AP Moller-Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, said in a statement that having Russian and Ukrainian crew members on the same ship can be challenging. “As a precautionary measure, we have decided not to let crew members from Ukraine and Russia board the same vessel,” the company said, adding that the policy was in effect at the beginning of the invasion. February.
In the midst of difficult moments, on some ships, close contact between the Russians and the Ukrainians led to unexpected affection.
Roman Zelenskyi, 24, a sailor from Odesa, Ukraine, said that after he and other Ukrainians showed Russians pictures of damage in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol, four Russians were on board. His was shocked and embarrassed. “These are people like me working on a ship,” he said. “We are living in peace.”
