Ankara works with EU neighbors amid drifting naval mine alert — Analysis
During the Russia-Ukraine war, the explosives near their shores were destroyed by Turkey and Romania.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that his country is working with Romanian and Bulgaria following the discovery of several floating naval mines in the Black Sea. Russia claimed that Ukraine had laid hundreds of floating mines to stop it seizing its ports.
“The mines are detected in our area, not in the area belonging to Russia or Ukraine,”Akar stated this to reporters Tuesday. “We are cooperating with Romania and Bulgaria [on the matter].”
Akar claimed that Turkish minesweepers as well as naval patrol aircraft had been placed on alert. Akar declined to give details about the number of mines that have been found so far, or their origin. “It wouldn’t be right to say if the mines were laid in Ukraine or came from elsewhere, without being sure,”He said. “Our work on the matter continues.”
According to the minister, on Saturday the Turkish Navy deactivated an older drifting mine located near the Bosphorus Strait. A second mine was found near Igneada by the Defense Ministry two days later.
On Monday, the Romanian Navy reported that fishermen had spotted a mine about 70 km (43 miles) from the coast. The Navy deployed a minesweeper, with divers aboard, to remove the mine.
This news was announced a week following the Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB), claim that the Ukrainian Navy had been laid about 420. “obsolete”There are floating mines at the ports’ entrances. The FSB warns that such mines could be carried by wind and currents into the Black Sea’s western regions.
Responding to Turkey’s report about the discovered mine on Saturday, the Ukrainian Navy accused Russia of “paralyzing the free navigation for all Black Sea countries”And “endangering the lives of civilian sailors.”
Moscow attacked Ukraine in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk ceasefire agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. To regulate these areas within Ukraine, the German-and French-brokered protocol had been established.
Russia now demands that Ukraine declare itself neutral and refuse to join NATO. This is a US-led military bloc. Kiev denies that Russia planned to seize the two republics and claims the Russian offensive was not provoked.
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