Near Romanian Coast, Oil Tanker Encounters Another Mine in the Black Sea

An oil tanker flying the Liberian flag struck a mine in the Black Sea near the shores of Romania. The incident occurred on October 15th as the tanker was navigating close to the Sulina Channel. Fortunately, the vessel's crew remained unharmed by the explosion, and the ship itself sustained minor damage, as reported by Sky News.

This marks the third such incident within the territorial waters of Romania. It follows a British intelligence warning on October 12th, indicating that Russia might attempt to target civilian ships in the Black Sea by placing explosive devices on approaches to Ukrainian ports.

On October 6th, a similar incident occurred near the Romanian coast when the Turkish-flagged cargo ship Kafkametler struck a sea mine in the Black Sea, resulting in minor damage, with no harm to its crew. According to Turkish officials, the explosion happened approximately 15-20 meters behind the ship.

On September 20th, an explosion took place near Romania's Sulina Channel on the Danube River, involving the Togolese-flagged trading vessel Seama, which also could have hit a mine. Consequently, this is the third such incident in less than a month.

Notably, this situation has prompted Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria to plan the establishment of joint forces to clear the Black Sea of mines that have found their way into these waters due to Russia's unlawful military actions against Ukraine. This international unit may become operational as soon as November, according to officials who requested not to be named as the negotiations were held privately.

Although not a NATO operation per se, this joint demining effort will be the first significant collaborative initiative of allies in the Black Sea since Russian President Vladimir Putin's order to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

This development comes at a time when NATO members are dealing with increasingly provocative behavior from Russia in the region.

It is expected that the new forces will have a purely peaceful mission and will not introduce any new NATO vessels into the sea, officials stated. According to one official, one of the mission's objectives is to demonstrate that these three countries can address the issue independently.

Since the outset of the conflict, NATO allies have ramped up their monitoring and intelligence efforts in the Black Sea but have refrained from conducting maritime operations. Turkey cites an international agreement allowing the passage of military vessels belonging exclusively to Black Sea coastal states.

It is worth noting that Russia has seeded the economic zone and territorial waters of Ukraine with mines since the early stages of its full-scale invasion. In total, there are at least 450 mines, with 30 of them being discovered by Ukrainian forces over the past year.