Egyptian sailors stuck in Kherson evacuated from Ukraine: Egyptian foreign ministry

Zeinab El-Gundy , Friday 8 Apr 2022

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday that Egyptian sailors who were stuck in the Ukrainian city of Kherson for more than month have been evacuated from Ukraine and preparations are underway for their return to Cairo.

The Egyptian sailors
The Egyptian sailors on their way out from Ukrainian Kherson on Thursday.The Egyptian Foreign Ministry

According to the foreign ministry, 11 Egyptian sailors were evacuated from Kherson port on Wednesday through the Egyptian embassy in Moscow, which secured their exit from the city after communicating with Russian authorities.

Egyptian Ambassador to Moscow Nazih El-Nagri held a video conference with the sailors on Friday where he told them that the Egyptian embassy was working on their return to Egypt in the coming days.

Kherson, a city of 200,000 people, had already fallen under Russian control. Fighting between the two sides has continued, however, as Ukrainian forces launched a counterattack a week ago.

Egypt has been pushing forward with efforts to bring its nationals home from Ukraine. Prior to the Russian invasion, around 6,000 Egyptians lived in Ukraine, including 3,000 students studying at the country’s universities, especially in the field of medicine.

Over the past three weeks, scores of Egyptian expats have already crossed the borders into Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. 

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