Turkey Proposes Black Sea Truce to Halt Ship Attacks After 2 Deadly Strikes

3 articles · Updated · Splash 247 · Sep 18

Ankara has circulated a draft memorandum to Moscow and Kyiv aimed at stopping attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea, its latest bid to contain a worsening maritime conflict.
The push follows a drone strike on a Tanzanian-flagged ship bound for a Ukrainian port that killed the captain and injured three crewmembers, with the vessel’s condition still under assessment.
Turkey is also dealing with fallout from a July attack near Novorossiysk on the 36,075-dwt Turkish-flagged bulker Reyhan Sari, which killed one seafarer and injured several others.
That case has now reached the International Criminal Court, while Turkey revives a mediator role it previously played in the Black Sea grain corridor after recent U.S. efforts failed to secure a broader pause.
A key obstacle remains enforcement: Sergei Lavrov said this month a Russia-Ukraine ban on attacks against civilian cargo ships would be impossible to monitor.