Somali pirates on Wednesday attacked and...
He earlier said the incident had occurred around 8.00 a.m. Moscow time [04:00 GMT], when the tanker was en route from the Red Sea to China. The pirates attacked the Russian vessel 350 miles east of the Gulf of Aden. There are 23 people on board, all of them Russian citizens.
He added that a Russian warship, the RFS Marshal Shaposhnikov, was on its way to help the tanker but would be unable to reach it until Wednesday night, most likely "between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Thursday."
The captain of the tanker, which is carrying 86,000 tons of crude oil, managed to get in touch with the Russian warship by phone and call for help.
The captain said two small boats with armed men on board had made an attempt to approach the tanker and fired automatic weapons.
The Liberian-flagged tanker exercised a series of maneuvers to avoid seizure but subsequently succumbed.
The Navy source did not say exactly where the Pacific Fleet"s Udaloy-class guided-missile destroyer
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