Turkey will not allow minesweepers Cherkasy and Chernihiv to enter the Black Sea
2 January, 2024 Minesweeper Cherkasy (M311) in the waters of Great Britain, October 23, 2023. Photo credits: Ukrainian Navy Turkey states that it will not allow two British minesweepers to transit its waters to the Black Sea for use by Ukraine.
The Directorate of Turkiye's Center for Combating Disinformation said that this would violate the international pact on the passage of straits in wartime. According to the report, the NATO member state will not allow ships to use the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits as long as the war in Ukraine continues. When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Turkey invoked the 1936 Montreux Convention to close the Straits to warships of the belligerent parties.
The convention exempts ships returning to their home bases from it.
Minesweepers Chernihiv and Cherkasy went to sea under the Ukrainian flag, January 2023 Photo credits: Dave Cullen
According to the President, Turkey impartially and diligently implements the Montreux Convention to prevent escalation in the Black Sea. Turkey stated that the allies had been duly apprised that the mine-hunting ships donated to Ukraine by the United Kingdom would not be allowed to pass through the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea. The Ukrainian Navy is to receive two Sandown-class minehunters within an agreement between Ukraine and the UK ratified in January 2022.
In January 2023, the minesweepers Cherkasy and Chernihiv went to sea for the first time under the Ukrainian flag. The names of the Sandown-class minesweepers were announced in September 2022.
Minesweeper Cherkasy (M311) in the waters of Great Britain, October 23, 2023. Photo credits: Ukrainian Navy
In the summer of 2023, it was reported that Ukrainian sailors were in the UK to train and master future minesweepers of the Ukrainian Navy.
The hull of these Sandown-class minesweepers is made of reinforced fiberglass. The minesweepers are not equipped with mine trawling equipment.
Their sole function is to search for and destroy mines using remotely operated search vehicles.
The secondary function of these vessels is patrolling.