Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- A Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 30 Soviet-designed tanks was released by Somali pirates today after Ukraine paid $3.2 million in ransom, ending a four-month standoff that led Russia to send warships to the region.

The ship was released off the Somali coast after “a very complicated operation conducted by Ukrainian intelligence services,” according to a statement on the Web site of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko. The crew members are safe and healthy, and the vessel is under U.S. guard, according to the statement. They are preparing to sail the ship to Kenya.

The Faina, a Belize-flagged vessel, was seized on Sept. 25, with a crew of 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and one Latvian. It was carrying at least 30 T-72 tanks to Kenya.

A U.S. Navy spokesman confirmed that a ransom was dropped onto the ship by an aircraft. The $3.2 million was received late yesterday, Hassan Muse, one of the pirates, said in a telephone interview.

The last of the 10 pirates left the boat, which will deliver its cargo to the Kenyan port of Mombasa before sailing home, Mykola Malomuzh, head of Ukraine’s external intelligence service, told a news briefing in Kiev.

Malomuzh didn’t specify the size of the ransom. The pirates had demanded $20 million, before lowering their demand, media organizations including Agence France-Presse reported.

Destination of Tanks

Kenya and the Ukraine insisted from the start of the hijacking that the tanks were intended for the Kenyan army, while the pirates and some Kenyan politicians have said they appeared to have been headed to militias in Southern Sudan.

“Our vessels continue to monitor the situation,” said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy in Bahrain.

U.S. warships have been shadowing the Ukrainian ship since it was hijacked, to prevent the tanks from falling into the hands of Somali militias.

The ship’s Russian captain died during the first week of the hijacking, apparently from a heart attack.

The hijacking spurred Russia to send a frigate to the waters off Somalia, where pirates last year seized 43 vessels. About 10 ships are still being held by the pirates.

The taking of the Faina was the most brazen hijacking carried out by Somali pirates, until another group in November seized a Saudi tanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude. That ship was released in January after a ransom was parachuted onto the vessel.

To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net; Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 5, 2009 10:04 EST