President Erdogan, outraged by the actions of the Ukrainians in the Black Sea. “Navigation security threat”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Monday of a “worrying escalation” following the drone attacks claimed by Ukraine and which hit two oil tankers in the Black Sea on Friday and Saturday near the coast of Turkey, reports AFP, taken over by Agerpres.

“We cannot accept these attacks under any circumstances, as they threaten the safety of navigation, the environment and life in our exclusive economic zone,” the Turkish president emphasized.

It signals that currently “the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has clearly reached a level that threatens the safety of navigation in the Black Sea”.

Therefore, “we are sending the necessary warnings to all parties involved. We are also closely following the evolution of the situation with a view to ending the conflict and are ready to make our contribution at every opportunity,” Erdogan said, after the United States formulated a 28-point peace plan on which Washington is negotiating with Kiev.

Two oil tankers, Kairos and Virat, which were sailing under the flag of the Gambian state, but are part of the “shadow fleet” with the help of which Russia circumvents the sanctions imposed on it by Western countries, were hit by Ukrainian naval drones on Friday evening in the Black Sea near the coast of Turkey, outside its territorial waters. The Virat ship was hit again on Saturday morning.

Both tankers were moving without cargo to the Russian port of Novorossiisk, where another Ukrainian drone attack knocked out an oil terminal where Kazakh oil is also exported.

A third oil tanker, the Mersin, under the Panamanian flag but operated by a Turkish company and also used to export Russian oil, was damaged on Thursday in the Atlantic near the African state of Senegal, following four external explosions whose cause is still unclear.