Ukraine will use five minesweepers and three boats for demining the Black Sea

A conference on mine protection in the Black Sea was held in Bulgaria. At the event, Ukraine’s participation in sea demining was discussed.

The conference was held as part of the next stage of the international exercises of the “Sea Breeze 2024” series and was devoted to issues of mine protection in the Black Sea, the Navy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported.

During the event, they discussed the strengthening of cooperation with partners within the coalition for the development of maritime capabilities of Ukraine, as well as the planning of collective efforts to free the Black Sea from the danger of mines.

The Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, noted that the current and future efforts of countries to achieve mine safety in the Black Sea without the involvement of Ukraine, as the main player, will not be effective.

“For this purpose, Ukraine will involve five mine countermeasures ships and three mine countermeasures boats, autonomous mine countermeasures systems, as well as specialists in underwater demining and a prepared headquarters of a mine countermeasures tactical group. They should play a key role in demining the northwestern part of the Black Sea and unite the efforts of partners to successfully conduct a large-scale anti-mine operation under the NATO flag. This is the only way we will make our sea free and safe again,” stressed Oleksiy Neizhpapa.

It should be noted that the conference was also attended by the commanders of the Sixth Fleet of the USA, the Navy of Bulgaria, the Republic of Turkey, the Mediterranean Fleet of France, the deputy commander of the NATO Maritime Command, the commander of operations of the Royal Navy of Great Britain, the leadership of the naval forces of Estonia, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Japan .

Previously, USM reported that the minesweepers “Chernigiv” and “Cherkasy” are temporarily staying at the base of the British Navy. All because of the Montreux Convention, which does not allow the passage of warships through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.