"The mines in the Black Sea are Russian-made, but we do not know which country had deployed them, we cannot identify them. Information in the media that there are about 400 mines in the Black Sea is a mystery. We do not know the number," Akar said.
Turkey is in contact with Bulgarian and Romanian authorities on the issue, as both countries are conducting dredging works alongside Ankara, he added.
Earlier in March, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that the Ukrainian military had installed about 420 mines at the entrance to the ports of Odessa, Ochakov, Chernomorsk and Yuzhnoye since the beginning of the Russian military operation in the country. The FSB did not exclude the possibility of the mines drifting to the Bosphorus Strait and further into the Mediterranean sea.