Turkey was obliged to inspect tankers attacked by drones near its coast, — Klymenko
5.12.2025 - 15:55
The expert believes that the sanctioned tankers that attacked near Turkey should have been inspected due to the lack of a flag and registration.
This was reported by the head of the project of the Institute for Black Sea Strategic Studies, Andriy Klimenko.
According to him, Turkey is very concerned about the attacks by naval drones on two tankers near its coast, but does not see its guilt in this.
Thus, both tankers, Kairos and Virat, since November 1, 2025, did not have a flag and registration in the Maritime Register of Ships of any country. Before that, the vessels had a Gambian registration and flag.
In turn, Turkey, in accordance with Article 110 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, had the right to inspect the vessel.
“In the cases provided for in paragraph 1, a warship may verify the right of the vessel to its flag. For this purpose, it may send a boat under the command of an officer to the suspected vessel. If after checking the documents, suspicion remains, he can conduct further inspection on board this vessel with all possible caution. Therefore, the maritime state of Turkey was obliged to inspect these tankers in its straits, find that they have no right to be at sea and detain them for two reasons – unauthorized broadcasting (radio operation) and lack of nationality, that is, no state registration,” Andriy Klymenko noted.
In particular, he added a map with the track of the Kairos tanker on November 28 through the Turkish straits without a flag and registration.
