Who are the Bulgarian sailors on the hijacked ship in the Red Sea?

The names of the two Bulgarian sailors, part of the crew of the ship Galaxy Leader hijacked in the Red Sea, are now clear. These are the 38-year-old captain - Lyubomir Chanev and 39-year-old chief mate Danail Veselinov. The vessel is currently in a port in Yemen. This was announced by the Varna company, which employed the Bulgarian sailors.

Two Bulgarians on the hijacked cargo ship in the Red Sea, one of them is the captain

The ship Galaxy Leader disappeared from the range of communication tracking systems in the early afternoon on Sunday. No contact has been made with the vessel's crew since then. The families of the two sailors were informed yesterday of their abduction. They are deeply concerned for their loved ones. The two Bulgarian sailors are trained for all situations at sea, but it is not known at this time what the actions of the hijackers were when the ship was hijacked.

Both of the hijacked Bulgarian sailors are very experienced.

"Both Bulgarians on board are extremely experienced. The captain has 17 years of experience at sea, 8 of which as a chief mate. The chief mate has 11 years of experience, of which 8 years as chief mate. Extremely experienced, very good and trusted personnel. I would like to appeal to the families of our two colleagues, to hold on, to give them courage to believe and we all hope, we are convinced that the case will have a positive outcome and we hope that it will be as soon as possible," said Zoltan Sulay, manager of a crew manning company in Varna.

The Red Sea area is not considered high-risk, but up to certain coordinates. After 2009, there is a possibility of hiring guards after crossing the Suez Canal, although no ships have been hijacked in this section so far.

"Ships that visit this area have started to take armed guards when passing this area, but I want to stress that this is not compulsory, it is up to the shipowner, it may also be related to the requirements of the insurer. If this ship had armed guards, they should have been on board in the position where they hijacked it, even though this high-risk area starts much further south," said Martin Ivanov, deputy chairman of the Seafarers' Syndicate.

The Varna-based manning company told BNT that it had hired more than 100 other seafarers to work on Israeli ships. Measures have been taken at the highest level to avoid the sea route through the Red Sea until the situation calms down and international relations normalise.