The Turkish Ministry of National Defence said it had taken all necessary measures to neutralize a mine-like object found in the Bosphorus Strait on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, Turkish newspaper Star re-ported that fishermen had seen a mine-like object in the area of the Sariyer-Turkeli anchorage at the entrance to the Bosphorus Strait,
“Following the discovery of a mine-like object by a civilian commercial vessel, on the morning of March 26, 2022, in the coastal zone of the Bospho-rus, units of the underwater defense (SAS) were promptly sent to the scene. The mine-like object in question was placed under guard by the SAS teams and an intervention was carried out to neutralize it,” the ministry said in a statement.
In addition, Turkish broadcater TRT Haber re-ported that the strait was closed to navigation until further notice.
Last week, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that the Ukrainian military had installed about 420 mines at the entrance to the ports of Odssa, Ochakiv, Chornomorsk and Yuzhne since the beginning of the Russian military operation in the country. The FSB did not exclude the possibility of the drifting of mines to the Bosphorus Strait and further into the seas of the Mediterranean Basin.
According to the Hurriyet newspaper, the Turk-ish navy urged ships to track drifting mines follow-ing the FSB statement. —APP
