Fishermen on Turkey’s Black Sea coast have found an unmanned boat, believed to belong to Ukraine and filled with explosives, the agency reported.
According to the agency, the unmanned vessel was spotted by fishing company owner Halil Ibrahim Bozk near the coast of Trabzon.
“An object appeared on our ship’s radar at a distance of 800 metres. When we saw it, we thought it might be a small fishing boat and approached it. We decided to hoist it on board. When we lifted it with a crane, we saw that it looked like a military boat. We then reported this to the coast guard, lifted the boat out of the water onto our vessel and took it to the fishing harbour,” said the Turkish fisherman.
According to the company owner, the crew of the Turkish vessel did not immediately realise the danger they were in.
“There were 300 kilograms of explosives inside. We regretted it, but it was done. Allah protected us. We took the boat to shore and handed it over to the coast guard. From that moment on, they demanded that all vessels be evacuated from the fishing harbour. Later, we continued fishing. In the morning, we found out that there was a bomb inside,” said Khalil Ibrahim Bozk.
Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a telephone conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced Ankara’s readiness to assist in high-level negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.
