Russian military unit spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov called Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy’s recent words to Norwegian MPs a lie.
According to the president, Moscow is responsible for “mining the sea” and blockading foreign ships in its country’s ports to collect weapons.
Konashenkov reported that from February 25 to March 4, “the remnants of the Ukrainian Navy’s demining forces” laid 370 anchor mines and “obsolete designs of the YAM-1 type” in the Black Sea and another 50 of the same type in the Azov Sea .
He also accused Kyiv of detaining 68 ships from Turkey, China, Switzerland, Greece, Malta, Panama, the Marshall Islands, Sierra Leone, the Comoros, Belize, Liberia, the Cayman Islands, Denmark and Syria in the ports of Chernomorsk, Odessa and Nikolayev to have and Yuzhny.
He explained that every day from 08:00 to 19:00 local time, his country opens a safe corridor 80 nautical miles long and three nautical miles wide for these ships to leave Ukraine’s territorial waters heading south-west.
On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that Ukrainian forces recklessly use certain types of weapons, creating threats in various regions, including the Black Sea.
“A real threat has arisen for the navigation of civilian ships in the Black Sea,” warned the military chief, recalling that in recent days the Turkish armed forces deactivated two sea mines off the coast of Romania and in the Bosphorus Strait.
Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced his country’s decision to put minesweepers and naval patrol planes on high alert over bombs floating in the region’s waters.
“Mines are being discovered in our region, not on the Russian or Ukrainian side. In this regard, we cooperate with Romania and Bulgaria, which also have a Black Sea coast,” he said, Anatolia News Agency reported.
On March 19, Russia’s Federal Security Service said mines laid by the Ukrainian Navy at the approaches to Black Sea ports could float in the Bosphorus Strait and the Mediterranean Sea due to cable breaks.
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