You're reading: Cruise ship, with 70 Ukrainian crew members on board, arrested in Israel

A cruise ship, the crew of which includes 70 Ukrainian citizens, has been arrested in Israel due to wage arrears, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported.

“According to the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel, the Venus, the
Maltese-flagged cruise ship, the crew of which consists of 340 people,
among them 70 citizens of Ukraine, was arrested in the port of Ashdod on
August 15 this year,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Dykusarov
said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He added that the ship had been arrested under a lawsuit lodged by
crew members regarding the payment of their salaries and that a lawyer
was currently defending their rights and interests.

“The health of the crew members, including Ukrainians, is
satisfactory, and the ship has enough drinking water and food,”
Dykusarov said.

He also noted that none of the crew members, including Ukrainian
citizens, had accepted the lawyer’s offer to leave the ship and return
home.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Israel and the Consular Service Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry are overseeing the case.