“In order to prevent terrorist and sabotage actions, as well as to ensure the safety of shipping, the Russian FSB is carrying out a set of control and verification measures in relation to ships passing through the Kerch Strait,” the intelligence service said in a statement.
The first results of such patrols already exist. “On July 22, traces of dinitrotoluene and tetryl explosives were found in the hold of a foreign dry-cargo ship heading from Turkey to the port of Rostov-on-Don to load grain crops. Signs of third-party interference in the structural parts of the dry-cargo ship were also revealed,” the FSB said.
It was established that at the end of May this ship was in the Ukrainian port of Kiliya. Subsequently, in July, a complete change of the ship’s crew took place in the Turkish port of Tuzla. Previously, it consisted of 12 citizens of Ukraine. In addition, the name of the freighter was even changed.
“These circumstances may indicate the possibility of using a foreign civilian ship to deliver explosives to the territory of Ukraine. The decision was made to prohibit the passage of the ship under the navigable arc of the transport crossing through the Kerch Strait with its subsequent exit outside the territorial sea of the Russian Federation,” the Russian FSB concluded.
