The Lehmann Timber was seized in the Gulf of Aden on May 28. Fifteen hostages are on board: the captain, who is a Russian national, and the crew of four Ukrainians, one Estonian and nine Myanmar nationals.
On Thursday, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said the ship owner and pirates had reached an agreement on the ransom sum.
The wife of a senior mechanic said live on the TV channel the pirates were firing into the air but would shoot the sailors next.
"Our Foreign Ministry yesterday called the ship and told the crew that money has long been paid for the sailors. No one knows anything," Svetlana Rudnichenko said Friday. "A company representative said everything should be fine with the crew, but according to our husbands, it's completely the opposite."
The waters off the East African nation are considered among the most dangerous in the world. According to the United Nations, 26 pirate attacks on civilian ships have occurred in the area since the start of this year.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, and a transitional government established with UN assistance in 2004 has failed to gain control over the country.
In late June, a Dutch-owned ship with four Russian and five Filipino crew was released by pirates. The Amiya Scan, managed by the Reider Shipping company, was seized off the coast of northern Somalia on May 25 as it sailed to Romania from the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
On April 4, after a French yacht and its 30 crew were seized in Somali waters, French forces conducted a military operation that resulted in the capture of six pirates.
At the beginning of June, the UN Security Council passed a resolution permitting countries to enter Somalia's territorial waters to combat "acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea."
