"Over 60 foreign vessels continue to be blocked in Ukrainian ports. The threat of shelling and high mine danger created by Kiev in its internal waters and territorial sea do not allow ships to safely go out", Mizintsev said at a Saturday briefing.
He added that Russian forces open a humanitarian corridor (a safe lane in the southwestern direction from the territorial waters of Ukraine) every day, but there is still a threat of drifting Ukrainian mines torn from anchor along the coast of the Black Sea.
"We are calling on the International Maritime Organisation and the management of shipowners to influence Kiev to take measures aimed at unblocking and ensuring the safety of the exit of ships of foreign states from the ports of Ukraine", Mizintsev said.
On Thursday, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the Ukrainian Navy had placed 420 anchor mines in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea between 25 February and 4 March. At least ten of these mines have been drifting freely in the Western part of the Black Sea after a storm that tore the anchor cables.
Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February, after the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against Kiev's forces. Russia said that the aim of its special operation is to demilitarise and "de-Nazify" Ukraine and that only military infrastructure is being targeted. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.
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