Russia has mined the Black Sea from the Bosphorus to Odesa and claims they are Ukrainian mines

Photo caption: Naval mine, photo from enciklopediya-tehniki.ru

The Russian army has mined shipping lanes from the Bosphorus to Odesa. The sea port of Sochi has circulated information that the mines are Ukrainian mines that are drifting after a storm.

Source: Andrii Klymenko, Project Manager at the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies and editor-in-chief of BlackSea News; Ukrainska Pravda source at the Ukrainian Navy

According to Klymenko: "Real danger at sea: the Russian Federation has mined the recommended routes from the Bosphorus to Odesa and has announced that these are Ukrainian mines. The latest dangerous disinformation from the enemy."

Details: Klymenko published a document dated 18 March and signed by Vyacheslav Rumyantsev, the Sochi sea port captain, which states that the Ukrainian Navy had laid anchor mines at the approaches to its ports of Odesa, Ochakiv, Chornomorsk and Yuzhne, but these have become adrift because of a storm and now present a threat to shipping in the northwest part of the Black Sea.

Ukrainska Pravda’s source at the Ukrainian Navy confirmed that disinformation is being circulated regarding mines that are adrift, allegedly because of Ukrainian forces.

Klymenko is convinced that the Russians’ warning is intended to impede the maritime traffic of commercial shipping in the Black Sea.

"This requires the immediate deployment of NATO’s Permanent Mine Action Group to the Black Sea!" he believes.

According to BlackSeaNews’ sources, Russia’s Black Sea fleet has been laying mines along the recommended routes for commercial shipping from the Bosphorus towards Odesa, and this is being covered up with a lie about "Ukrainian mines cast adrift by a storm".

Klymenko emphasised that in principle it is impossible to count mines drifting in a stormy sea – "that can only be done by the people who laid them".