A Turkish-owned vessel was struck by a bomb near Ukraine’s port city of Odessa on Thursday, said the Turkish Maritime General Directorate.
They said that there were no casualties, according to Turkish officials. The ship was en route to Romanian waters, they said.
“Upon information that the Marshall Islands-flagged Turkish-owned Yasa Jupiter ship was struck by a bomb off the coast of Odessa, it was learned that the ship has no request for help, is en route to Romanian waters, has no casualties, and is safe,” the authority wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, Ukrainian officials called on Turkey, a member of NATO since its inception, to block Russian ships from entering the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Ankara, Vasyl Bodnar, said Turkey should shut down the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to Russian ships in a move that would surely provoke Moscow. Omer Celik, a spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, told Reuters Turkey was evaluating the issue.
“Turkey will evaluate the requests and respond as soon as possible,” Bodnar told reporters, according to the Reuters news agency. “We expect solidarity to be shown.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine and said Moscow is violating Kyiv’s sovereignty.
Turkey has maintained a close relationship with Russia, although it also has warm relations with Ukraine. Turkey has sold armed drones to Ukraine that Kyiv reportedly used on Thursday against the Russian military.
“Turkey supports Ukraine’s struggle to preserve its territorial integrity,” Erdogan said, according to reports.
The Russian Defense Ministry later on Thursday formally confirmed that its forces have moved into Ukraine from Crimea.
Until Thursday’s statement, Russia had said only that it unleashed a barrage of air and missile strikes on Ukrainian air bases, air defense batteries, and other military facilities.
The ministry said it has destroyed a total of 83 Ukrainian military facilities. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov confirmed that Russian ground troops advanced toward the city of Kherson northwest of the Crimea peninsula.
Kherson sits on a water reservoir used in the past to provide the bulk of freshwater for Crimea until Ukraine cut it with a dam in 2017 in response to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Konashenkov said Thursday’s move allows the resumption of the water supply to Crimea.
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