ANKARA, 3 December – Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan of Turkey said on Wednesday that a series of recent drone attacks on tankers linked to Russia in the Black Sea was “very scary”, warning they threatened everyone in the region and showed the war in Ukraine was spreading at sea.
He said the strikes occurred within the exclusive economic zone under Turkish jurisdiction, undermining navigational safety and hurting commercial activity. He added that the three Black Sea neighbours – Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria – were examining additional steps to reinforce security.
A Turkish Foreign Ministry source said Fidan raised the incidents – including some attacks claimed by Ukraine – during talks in Brussels with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, as well as in separate conversations with his counterparts from Bulgaria and Romania.
According to the source, Fidan and Rutte discussed security in the Black Sea and negotiations aimed at ending a war that has lasted nearly four years in Ukraine, without providing further detail.
The same person said the foreign ministers from Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania underlined the need to keep trade moving freely through the Black Sea, protect key infrastructure and maintain safe shipping lanes, while calling on all sides to comply with international law.
The recent incidents have driven up insurance costs for voyages in the Black Sea and prompted Turkish company Besiktas Shipping to halt services involving Russia because of security concerns.
Outside the Black Sea, a Besiktas Shipping tanker that also traded with Russia was damaged by external impacts near Senegal, and no one claimed responsibility for the damage.
Ukraine, which is seeking to hit Russia’s oil exports while Moscow strikes its power grid, took responsibility for a seaborne drone attack on two empty tankers that were heading to a Russian port last week.
Kyiv, however, denied any involvement in a separate incident on Tuesday, when a Russian-flagged tanker carrying sunflower oil said it had come under a drone attack off the Turkish coast.
Turkey has condemned the strikes on commercial vessels as unacceptable and cautioned “all parties” to end them, a Turkish official said, adding that this position specifically applies to the Ukrainian authorities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded by threatening to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea, saying Moscow will step up strikes on Ukrainian facilities and vessels and may act against tankers belonging to countries that support Ukraine.
