Marine mines threaten trade routes in the Black Sea

The Turkish Navy announced that it has disarmed several naval mines floating in the Black Sea since last weekend. One of the neutralized mines was located near the Bosphorus Strait, which for a short time was even closed to transport ships.

The Romanian military also announced it had neutralized earlier this week a floating explosive device discovered by fishermen off the country’s shores.

Hundreds of mines – or just ten?

Earlier last week, Russia’s secret service FSB and Moscow’s Defense Ministry warned that Ukrainian naval mines had been cut off due to a storm from places near the Odessa city coast.

At first there was talk of several hundred mines floating in the Black Sea. The Russian Defense Ministry later corrected the news by specifying that ten of the approximately 370 mines located on the shores of Odessa had been detached from the sites where they were located.

Ukraine immediately rejected this information as false. The discovered mines belong to Ukraine’s weapons stockpile, but they originate from Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia has occupied since 2014. According to Kiev, Russia is deliberately letting mines float in the Black Sea so to damage Ukraine’s international reputation.

“Both versions are credible,” said Johannes Peters, a strategy and maritime security expert at the University of Chile. Published images show that we are dealing with old models, probably of Soviet production, that have Ukrainian emblems. Such a statement was given by the Turkish authorities. But it is also clear that “at least since the annexation of Crimea, the Russian navy has had access to such mines.”

Danger to civil maritime transport

Unlike land mines for marine mines there is no international agreement prohibiting their use. According to the Hague Convention, water mines should not be allowed to float as a godless commodity in international waters. But in times of crisis and armed conflict, states are allowed to place water mines in their territorial waters to protect themselves from sea attacks.

Ukraine complied with the agreement and warned shipping companies that it had mined large areas of its coastal waters northeast of the Black Sea. According to the Hague Agreement, in theory, Kiev should also warn of any landmines that may be detached from the site.

After the Turkish navy disarmed one of the mines discovered in the Bosphorus Strait, the Turkish authorities banned fishing in the Black Sea overnight until further notice.

The Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, is a trade route of crucial importance to all neighboring countries except Turkey. The Bosphorus Strait is also home to ships exporting grain from Russia and – usually – Ukraine. The blockade of this sea route has caused insecurity for civil maritime transport and may again lead to an increase in the price of wheat and other products./ DW

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