Bulgarian and Romanian ships clear a corridor in the Black Sea of mines for Ukrainian vessels

A minesweeping group of ships from two NATO countries has begun trawling the Black Sea along the route of the new Ukrainian maritime corridor.

This was announced by Andriy Klymenko, Head of the monitoring group of the Black Sea Institute for Strategic Studies.

“The decision was made only on 12.10.2023 during the next “Ramstein”, and since 16.10.2023 the ships have been at sea. We are observing 7 ships, 1 Romanian, 6 Bulgarian, the rest of the details will be revealed later…” – he wrote.

Klymenko noted that the ships are not limited to the territorial sea of Bulgaria. They also operate in the adjacent area, where the routes of bulk carriers of the new Ukrainian grain corridor are located.

Klymenko later added that the monitoring group of the Black Sea Institute for Strategic Studies and BlackSeaNews identified 5 of the 7 ships in the minesweeper group. These are:

1) Mine countermeasure (board 32) “Цибър” – Bulgarian Navy,

2) Frigate (41) “Дръзки” – Bulgarian Navy,

3)  Patrol ship (11) “Смели” – Bulgarian Navy,

4) Frigate (42) “Верни” – Bulgarian Navy,

5) Sea minesweeper (30) “Slt. Alexandru Axente” – Romanian Navy.

6) …. Bulgarian Navy minesweeper.

7) …. Bulgarian Navy minesweeper.

Tags: Black Sea grain corridor, demining