By Olha Chepil | 2024-01-25

KYIV -- Russia's war against Ukraine is turning the Black Sea into a dangerous minefield that threatens to disrupt travel and trade through the inland sea bordered by Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Türkiye, Bulgaria and Romania.

The three NATO members that border the Black Sea -- Türkiye, Bulgaria and Romania -- have decided to start the arduous process of making the sea safe for navigation.

Top defense officials from the three countries on January 11 signed a memorandum of understanding in Istanbul establishing the Mine Countermeasures Naval Group in the Black Sea (MCM Black Sea), which will oversee mine-clearing operations.

The tripartite memorandum is valid for three years and includes the option to extend for another three. It can be terminated at any time. Ukraine is working to join the memorandum.

Beginning of a lengthy process

The Russian navy mined Ukraine's Black Sea coastline in the early stages of its invasion almost two years ago.

After the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant last June, even more Russian mines were washed into the Black Sea.

Some of the mines have since been found in the waters of the three countries, endangering shipping and complicating Ukraine's efforts to break through a Russian naval blockade.

"It is of vital importance to be protected from security risks that war could cause," Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said at the signing ceremony.

"With the start of the war, mines drifting in the Black Sea posed a threat. To overcome this, we have come this far with the joint efforts of our Bulgarian and Romanian allies," he added.

Russia's "aggressiveness and disdain towards the norms of international law turn the Black Sea not only into a regional problem, but one with global implications," the Romanian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

In an earlier statement the ministry said the initiative would have a rotating command structure and "contribute to strengthening the allied posture of deterrence and defence of the eastern flank."

Mine clearing will likely begin this summer, and could take years to complete, analysts say.

"Completely eliminating the mine threat in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov may take up to two years," said Maksym Palamarchuk, director of the Kyiv-based Center for Foreign Policy Studies of the National Institute for Strategic Studies.

"But it may take less time, say a few months, to ensure the safe passage of ships," he said.

Protecting Black Sea shipping

NATO welcomed the creation of the joint operation against the threat of mines in the Black Sea.

"This is an important contribution toward greater freedom of navigation and food security in the region and beyond," alliance spokesman Dylan White said.

Minesweeping is primarily a humanitarian operation, but it also shows Russia that other countries in the region do not approve of its demonstration of military dominance in the Black Sea, Palamarchuk said.

"This is a demonstration of Black Sea countries' unity and, of course, support for Ukraine," he told Kontur.

The joint operation will primarily involve minesweepers -- specially equipped warships that remove or detonate sea mines over large areas -- as well as helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones).

Türkiye has more than 10 minesweepers, Bulgaria has three and Romania recently purchased two from the United Kingdom, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Kazakh service reported January 15.

Though the ships will operate only in the maritime economic zones of Türkiye, Romania and Bulgaria, the three countries' new agreement will also benefit the transportation of grain and other goods from Ukrainian ports.

Following Russia's withdrawal from a grain deal last July, merchant ships carrying Ukrainian cargo have moved along the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria.

Since then, Russia has regularly attacked Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea and at the mouth of the Danube.

"The countries will operate within their territorial waters. But this is also good for Ukraine, because ships sail to Odesa through these territorial waters," said Andriy Ryzhenko, a captain 1st rank in the Ukrainian naval reserves and analyst at the Center for Defense Strategies.

Sea bottom mines

Ships in the Black Sea have faced increasing danger of striking mines.

In late December, a Panama-flagged cargo ship en route through the Black Sea to a Ukrainian port on the Danube to load grain suffered an explosion at sea. Fire broke out on the ship, and two crew members were injured.

The ship hit a sea bottom mine, according to Andrei Klimenko, director of the Institute for Strategic Black Sea Studies and editor-in-chief of BlackSeaNews.

Russia has recently begun to drop sea bottom mines from planes and drones as part of its strategy to impede work in the humanitarian corridor, he said.

"The Russians will use all means available to them to lay sea bottom mines in the vicinity of Greater Odesa's ports and Snake Island, the channel to the mouth of the Danube and ships' traditional waiting zone," he told Kontur.

Sea bottom mines get their name from their ability to be used at depths of up to 200 meters.

"A sea bottom mine has 500-700kg of explosives," Ryzhenko said. "If a cargo ship passes over it, the mine explodes. The ship rises on this explosive bubble, and its hull breaks apart."

"It can destroy a very large ship," he told Kontur. "The main damage occurs precisely in the part of the hull that is underwater."

Russia also has a stockpile of Soviet anchor mines, which are chained and float a few meters below the surface.

Ryzhenko referred to how the mines, which look like balls with spikes protruding from them, work.

"There have been many cases when this 'bubble' floats up against some object like a piece of wood, brushes against it with one of its spikes and detonates," he said.

"If you take into account the western coast of Bulgaria, Romania and Türkiye, about 80 such mines have been discovered there over the last year and a half," Ryzhenko said.