Rear Admiral Chekmasov told what mines were installed by the APU in the Black Sea and how dangerous they are
The Turkish Defense Ministry is taking measures in connection with information about Ukrainian mines drifting in the Black Sea, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "Newspaper.Ru" figured out what mines Ukraine could have exposed, what is dangerous about their drift and how they can be neutralized.
The Department of Navigational Hydrography and Oceanography, subordinate to the command of the Turkish Navy, stated that the mines with which the AFU tried to prevent the passage of Russian Navy ships to Odessa and other Black Sea ports, broke off their anchors and drifted. "In connection with this issue, our Ministry of Defense is taking all necessary measures," Recep Erdogan said.
Earlier, the FSB of Russia warned that anchor mines installed by the Ukrainian Navy could drift towards the Bosporus Strait and further into the seas of the Mediterranean Basin due to cable breakage. According to the FSB of Russia, there can be up to 420 mines in the Black Sea. The situation, the Russian side emphasizes, "is aggravated by the presence of river mines that are not adapted to use in conditions of sea waves."
Military expert, Rear Admiral Mikhail Chekmasov drew attention to the material in the daily professional international publication "Notices to Seafarers", which publishes reports on actions that could entail danger to navigation in a particular area.
- said Chekmasov.
The expert suggested that Ukraine had set up engineering anti-amphibious mines here. "These may be bottom mines, anchor anti-landing mines. Of those that were in the USSR and could remain in Ukraine - mines of the YARM and PDM-3YA type," Chekmasov noted.
According to him, the YARM mine is installed at a distance of 20 m from the shore at a depth of 1 to 12 m, the weight of its explosive is 3 kg. The anti-airborne mine PDM-3 is more serious - the weight of its explosive reaches 15 kg.
"This mine is similar to the so-called slingshot, which is often shown in feature films. It is these mines that will pose the greatest danger to shipping," Chekmasov stressed.
Mines can be installed with or without a self-destruct device. "It is difficult to say how the mines were installed, but they are equipped with a self-destruct device with a self-destruct period from 2 to 120 days. If nothing has been tampered with, then almost 4 months remain before the self-destruction of these mines," Chekmasov said.
"These mines are an old Soviet legacy that Ukraine inherited. Some of them spontaneously explode - this suggests that the technical condition of the mines is extremely deplorable, and this poses a real threat. The installation of old mines is irresponsible behavior that can lead to the undermining of civilian vessels in the Black Sea," he told the newspaper.Ru" Editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, Director of the Center for Analysis of the World Arms Trade (CAMTO) Igor Korotchenko.
Admiral Chekmasov stressed that now Ukraine is obliged to disclose information about which mines were installed and where, so that the world community can take measures to eliminate them.
- said the admiral.
In his opinion, the trawling of Ukrainian mines today can be performed most effectively by the Russian Black Sea Fleet. "But for this it is necessary to comply with certain conditions for admission to the trawling area, which is hardly possible today. In general, at the end of the conflict, the party that exposed the mines is obliged to eliminate them. But in the conditions of a special operation, this is hardly possible from the Ukrainian side, and after its completion, Ukraine is unlikely to be able to carry out these actions, it will require the involvement of other countries," Chekmasov concluded.
Irina Alshayeva
