MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, on Thursday said the government in Kiev is seeking to shift the blame for creating the mine threat in the Black Sea onto Russia by saying the Ukrainian mines that were found in the Bosphorus Strait and off the Romanian coast are Russian.
"The Ukrainian government, in an attempt to evade responsibility for creating a mine threat in the Black Sea, are cynically trying to blame this on the Russian Federation," he said. "Thus, a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry indicated that the mines found in the Bosphorus Strait and off the coast of Romania were allegedly used by the Russian side as ‘uncontrolled drifting munitions.’"
The general said the Russian armed forces during the special military operation are strictly and rigorously implementing the entire range of comprehensive measures to ensure civilian navigation in the waterways of the Black, Azov and Mediterranean seas. "Naval mine weapons have not been used and will not be used," he said.
Mizintsev said stating that Russia deployed the mines "is incompetent regarding its content, absurd and stupefyingly arrogant and stupid." According to him, Russian specialists identified the naval anchor mines that have been found as item 730, which is in service only with the Ukrainian naval forces.
"The Russian Navy doesn’t have this type of mines in service as they were disposed of before 2016," he said.