Specialist Team Successfully Defuses Mine In Black Sea, Turkish Defense Minister Talks With Russia And Ukraine

Illustration of the Black Sea region of Istanbul, Turkey. (Wikimedia Commons/Mostafameraji)

JAKARTA - Turkey's Ministry of National Defense announced on Monday, a mine was found in the Black Sea near the border with Bulgaria.

"On March 28, 2022, a mine was discovered near the border with Bulgaria off the coast of Igneada, to which an underwater defense team was immediately dispatched. The mine was secured and work is underway to defuse it," the statement said, quoted from TASS March 29.

Not long ago, a team of Turkish specialists succeeded in neutralizing the mine, according to the Turkish Ministry of National Defense.

"The underwater defense team neutralized the mines detected on March 28, 2022, outside the city of Igneada," the ministry said.

Earlier on March 26, Dogan's agency reported that an object resembling a mine was found by fishermen. Later, the Turkish Defense Ministry issued a statement confirming that the object had been neutralized.

According to Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, he discussed the matter with representatives of Russia and Ukraine. Minister Akar also stated that after the incident, a minesweeper of the Turkish Navy was deployed in the region.

A week earlier on March 19, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that a mine placed by the Ukrainian Navy near a Black Sea port could float towards the Bosphorus and the Mediterranean Sea due to a broken cable.

The agency stressed that the Ukrainian armed forces had "again demonstrated complete ignorance of fundamental international law, ignoring the lives of people, including EU citizens."

To note, according to the 1907 Hague VIII Convention (Convention on the Laying of Automatic Subsea Contact Mines), international law prohibits the placement of automatic anchor mines, which do not become harmless once the moorings are broken.