Stray naval mine found in Black Sea — Analysis

Military diving teams working on defusing it, says Turkey’s National Defense Ministry
Turkey discovered yet another naval mine in its Black Sea waters, making it the third such discovery since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The country’s Ministry of National Defense announced the discovery on Wednesday, stating that elite Underwater Defense (SAS) diving teams had been dispatched to the area where the latest mine was found by a Liberian-flagged cargo ship and were already working on defusing it, and adding that a security perimeter had been established around the area, just off the coast of the town of Kefken in Izmir.
Previously, two other apparent floating mines were reported to have been found and destroyed by Turkey – one near the Bosphorus strait and one near Turkey’s border with Bulgaria. One was also destroyed by the Romanian army near the Black Sea shore on March 28th.
Black Sea, a major shipping route for commodities, such as oil, grain and other products, is shared by Turkey and Russia.
Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of laying out mines in the Black Sea, with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky stating in an address to the Norwegian parliament last Wednesday that the Russian military is “creating the worst threat to international security since World War II”Its “insidious”operation in the Black sea. Russia was accused by he of placing mines at the Black Sea. “uncontrolled drifting ammunition”You can also find out more about. “de facto weapon of indiscriminate action.”

Moscow has denied the accusations, with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stating that, from February 24 to March 4, the Ukrainian navy had placed about 420 “obsolete” sea anchor mines outside several of its ports. On March 19, the FSB warned that these mines could have fallen from cables, and drifted into the Bosphorus or Mediterranean Sea.
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. These protocols, which were French and German-brokered, had been created to regulate the state of these regions in the Ukrainian government.
Russia now demands that Ukraine declare itself neutral and vows to not join NATO. This is a US-led military bloc. Kiev denies that Russia launched the Russian military offensive and claims that they were planning to take the secessionist territories by force.
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