MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/. Mines have been planted on 14,000 square kilometers of Ukraine’s marine waters, the country’s First Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Pavlyuk said in an interview with the UkrInform news outlet on Friday.
"As for marine waters, it’s 14,000 square kilometers," he said in response to a question about mined areas.
The city of Odessa and the Odessa region keep reporting blasts associated with the controlled detonation of mines which then wash up on the seashore. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out earlier that the Ukrainian armed forces were planting mines everywhere, including on farmland and in marine waters. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last year that mines planted by Ukrainian troops were drifting freely in the Black Sea, posing a threat to shipping and port infrastructure in Black Sea countries. In addition, mines in the water impede the export of Ukrainian grain.