Turkey’s foreign minister says Ankara is calling on Russia and Ukraine to ensure maritime safety in the Black Sea amid a series of strikes in and around the waters.
Hakan Fidan told reporters on Saturday that “the entire Black Sea has become one of the areas where the war has spread.” Turkey is one of the countries bordering the sea.
Fidan added that Russia and Ukraine are “attacking all commercial ships without distinction.”
The Turkish foreign minister revealed that Ankara had conveyed its call to Moscow and Kyiv about the establishment of a mechanism for declaring a moratorium on Black Sea attacks.
Fidan also urged both sides to exercise self-restraint over their stepped-up strikes on logistics facilities.
The move came as Russian forces launched an attack last month on a cargo ship carrying corn from a Black Sea port, killing at least 10 people.
Earlier this month, a Ukrainian drone fell onto a crowded Black Sea beach in Russia, killing seven people.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media that Russian forces attacked residential buildings and a port in the southern region of Odesa on the Black Sea, injuring eight people.