On Wednesday, March 2, the Russians killed a Bangladeshi citizen on the Banglar Samriddhi ship, which was on a roadstead near Mykolaiv, and the day before they took the HELT cargo ship hostage, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has reported.

"Yesterday, the Russians killed a citizen of Bangladesh on the Banglar Samriddhi ship, which was on the roadstead near Mykolaiv, and the day before they took the HELT dry cargo ship hostage. At the same time, the Russians use the HELT ship as a shield to hide behind it from Ukrainian anti-ship weapons, because Ukrainians do not shoot at civilian objects," the State Border Guard Service said on Facebook on Thursday.

On Wednesday, ships of the Russian Navy repeatedly dictated illegal demands and threats through an open channel for the safety of navigation.

"Thus, a Russian warship announces a ban on mooring in the outer roads of the Ukrainian Black Sea ports from the Danube to Skadovsk. Moreover, it reads their names from outdated navigation charts, where the not yet decommunized Illichivsk, instead of Chornomorsk, the Pivdenny port is still Yuzhny, and Zalizny Port instead of a quiet resort town looms as an industrial monster with its own raid," the service said.

Russian military pirates openly threaten to use weapons to every civilian ship enjoying the right of innocent passage, calling them a terrorist threat.

"Hiding behind civilian ships taken hostage and trying to use them as a human shield, the Russian Navy is trying to sneak up on the Ukrainian coast. So, during the week of the war, Black Sea pirates took four ships hostage, one of which was the Athena tanker under threats to use weapons forced NATO countries to leave the territorial waters of Romania," the State Border Guard Service said.

In addition, from time to time the Russians, while trying to shell the southern regions of Ukraine, shoot down civilian ships.

"Since the beginning of the war, they have hit four foreign ships (dead and wounded are reported). In the nearby zone of Ukraine, the MILLENNIUM SPIRIT tanker with 600 tonnes of diesel fuel continues to burn. On February 25, a Russian missile hit the tanker. The wounded crew was evacuated by the Marine Search and Rescue Service Ukraine. The Russian Navy does not make it possible to put out the fire and prevent an environmental catastrophe due to a fuel spill," the service said.

The State Border Guard Service said that the international maritime community already perceives Russian military sailors at the level, or even worse, of Somali pirates, and in response to threats, Russians constantly hear curses and traditional wishes to follow a certain course.

"The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, within its competence, records the facts of violations of international maritime law, decisions on which must be made by international courts. Now the border guards, along with other components of the security and defense sector, continue to defend Ukraine, protect its borders and independence," the State Border Guard Service said.