Ships in the Black Sea are heading along the coasts of NATO countries to avoid Russian ships

In the Black Sea, civilian vessels changed their routes to avoid “checks” from the Russians and possible shelling.

The crews have no desire to be stopped for inspection by Russian warships and come under random fire, said Andriy Klymenko, head of the Monitoring Group of the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies.

According to him, merchant vessels heading from the Bosphorus are now trying to keep closer to the territorial sea of Bulgaria and Romania (the routes are marked in the photo with a dotted line in olive color, the 12-mile zone of the territorial sea is in purple).

The traditional cluster of vessels near the entrance to the Danube estuary has also moved west (red arrow) — they are trying to stay within the territorial sea (12-mile zone) of Romania next to the maritime border of Ukraine near Zmiinyi Island (green mark).