naval mine Georgia

Eyewitnesses have captured video footage of a naval mine exploding on a beach along the coast of the Georgian city of Batumi.

The effects of the large explosion were reported across much of the city, which sits on the country’s Black Sea coast.

The mine has been identified in local media as a Soviet-era YaM-type mine, produced by the USSR during the second world war.

These mines weigh over 150 kilograms and contain around 20 kg of TNT explosives. They are capable of damaging or sinking ships upon contact.

Stray mines have become a threat in the region, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for dropping mines in the Black Sea.

Russia’s main intelligence agency, the Russia Federal Security Service (FSB), claims that the Ukrainian Navy laid between 400-600 old mines off the coast of Odesa in March 2022, with the intention of using them against Russian warships. However, the agency claims a storm dragged the mines from their cables and caused them to drift into the Black Sea.

Ukraine has disputed these claims, saying that Russia was looking to close off parts of the sea and is spreading disinformation.

Experts say it will now take years to ‘de-mine’ the Black Sea. In June, a 50-year-old man was killed by a mine as he swam in the calm waters of a beach off Odesa.

“It’s truly a big problem,” Vladlen Tobak, a former Ukrainian navy diving instructor and the founder of a diving school in Odesa, told the Guardian. “These mines are there with other unexploded devices from the second world war, which we continue to find. The main concern is that we don’t know how many mines were dropped during the naval blockade. It will take a long time to clear the waters of these devices.”

The Black Sea is an important year-round maritime transportation artery. Turkish authorities have issued warnings about the risk of mines for those using the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits, asking ships to report any sightings immediately.

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