Turkey summons ambassadors of Ukraine and Russia over attacks on ships in the Black Sea

А Ankara is “concerned” about the shelling of Russian “shadow fleet” vessels near its coast and asks the parties to refrain from escalation within its economic zone.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has summoned representatives of the embassies of Ukraine and Russia in connection with recent attacks on Russian vessels in the Black Sea near the Turkish coast. This was reported by Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Berris Ekinci, Reuters reports.

“We are witnessing a very serious escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine with mutual attacks. Some of them took place within our exclusive economic zone,” the diplomat said.

According to her, the Turkish side summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires and the Ukrainian ambassador on December 4 to convey its concerns.

As a reminder, on November 28, two sanctioned tankers from the so-called Russian “shadow fleet” caught fire off the coast of Turkey. Subsequently, on December 2, another Russian tanker was attacked near Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously called the events a “worrying escalation” and urged the parties not to attack energy infrastructure and ships in the Black Sea.

Read also. New risks in the Black Sea: how the market reacted to the attack on tankers operating with sanctioned oil