ZHUKOVSKY (Moscow Region), August 20 (RIA Novosti) -- The plight of two merchant ships detained by China over debts will be resolved in a couple of days, the Russian transportation minister said on Thursday.
Chinese authorities detained the Vasily Yan cargo ship and the Professor Voskresensky vessel over debts by the owner of the ships, Russia's Arctic shipping company. Both vessels have been undergoing repair in the port of Shanghai since last September.
"The Transportation Ministry is closely monitoring the situation," Igor Levitin said, adding that Russian officials "are in continuous contact with the ship owners."
He said the necessary funding, as well as food and fuel supplies, would be provided to the crews.
Levitin said that after the issue was resolved, his ministry, together with the Prosecutor General's Office, would "look into the causes of this situation."
The crews appealed on Wednesday to the Russian president and prosecutor general to secure their return home.
President Dmitry Medvedev has told First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to look into the situation, "straighten out the debt claims" and see to it that the seamen have sufficient supplies.
The 21 crew members on board the two ships have not been paid since April 2009, and currently have insufficient reserves of food, fuel and drinking water.
The seamen demanded that the ship's owner pay the arrears and repatriate them.
The ship owner has yet to make an official comment.
