Russia today accused Ukraine of planting hundreds of landmines near its shores, and said some were drowning in the high seas of the Black Sea, posing a threat to merchant shipping, a day after Kyiv claimed Moscow was responsible for laying the ground.
The Black Sea is an important shipping route for cereals, oil and petroleum products. Its waters are shared by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey, as well as Ukraine and Russia, which have been at war since President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to invade its southern neighbor on February 24th.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that Russia had placed naval mines in the Black Sea as “uncontrollable ammunition”, turning them into “a de facto weapon of indiscriminate action”.
The Russian Defense Ministry said today that from February 24 to March 4, the remnants of the Ukrainian naval minesweepers had placed about 420 anchor mines – 370 in the Black Sea and 50 in the Sea of ​​Azov.
“As a result of the storms in the Black Sea and due to the unsatisfactory technical condition, the cables with anchors at the bottom were broken in about 10 Ukrainian mines,” the Ministry of Defense said.
“Since then, under the influence of wind and surface currents, Ukrainian mines have been swept across the high seas in the western part of the Black Sea in a southerly direction … No one can know where the remaining mines are being swept away today.”
Moscow has said that Kyiv “posed an imminent threat of landmines for cargo and cargo ships of all Black Sea countries.” Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, Russia’s main intelligence service accused Ukraine of planting landmines to protect ports, and said several hundred of the explosives had been broken by wires and removed. Kyiv rejected this allegation as misinformation.
In recent days, Turkish and Romanian military diving teams have been involved in deactivating stray mines around their territorial waters.
The Turkish Defense Ministry said it had not yet determined the source and number of drones and that it had contacted Ukrainian and Russian officials on the matter.
Taifin Ozberk, a former senior Turkish Navy officer, told Reuters that it was difficult to establish reliable information on the mines used by both Russia and Ukraine.
“Given that it has been under siege for about two months, it seems very unlikely that Ukraine has recently planted mines,” Ozberk said.
London’s maritime insurance market has expanded its area of ​​high risk water and the cost of insurance has skyrocketed.
Five merchant ships were hit by missiles – one of which sank – off the coast of Ukraine, killing two sailors, officials said.
Source: Capital
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