A small vessel waiting to enter the Danube hit a sea mine on Thursday but continued its journey without suffering serious damage, Reuters reported.
The incident occurred on the 3,100-dwt Kafkametler (built 1992) near the entrance of the Sulina Canal on the Ukraine-Romania border, the news wire said, citing a Turkish source.
The incident highlights the risks to commercial shipping from the Ukraine war. However, it is unrelated to the renascent, deepsea Ukrainian grain trade, which the UK claimed this week that Russia is planning to disrupt through mines.
Reuters cited a Ukrainian government source as saying the object that struck the vessel was “probably a World War II mine, or [one of] the landing mines that were left there [in Ukraine] last year”.
According to Ambrey, the vessel resumed sailing after briefly assessing the damage, which turned out to be minor.
MarineTraffic data shows the Kafkametler already inside the Danube.
The vessel is flying the Turkish flag, but the country’s authorities and media have not yet issued any statements or reports about the incident.
Even though far from the actual front, the Danube has not remained unscathed in the war. Russian drones have repeatedly struck port infrastructure at the Reni and Izmail terminals in the region.
The latest attack was early on 6 October, when unmanned aerial vehicles of the Geranium type damaged a grain facility there, according to officials. A ferry crossing to Romania across the Danube has temporarily suspended operations as a result of the attack.
Seaborne grain trade, however, goes on in the Black Sea — despite the war and mutual threats by Moscow and Kyiv to consider each other’s trading vessels potential military targets.
Russian grain continues flowing out of the Black Sea and has even increased during the war.
Ukraine has resumed some of its exports lately through a new maritime corridor under its protection, following successful military action against the Russian Navy in Crimea.
