Two British minehunter ships destined for Ukraine cannot travel through Turkish waters, Ankara stressed Tuesday, citing an international pact.
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps announced last month that Ukraine’s armed forces had struck a deal to procure the Sandown Class vessels from Britain’s Royal Navy as the war-torn country grapples with Russia’s continued blockade of the Black Sea.
But Turkey confirmed it had informed its NATO allies that the ships would not be allowed to travel through its waters.
The Montreux Convention has been around for just shy of 100 years. So this is news to nobody, additionally they have turned away Russian ships too. The convention clearly states that ships of war of belligerent powers cannot transit the bosphorus straits.
Best I can tell reading it if the British had kept them in their Navy. Sailed them into the Black Sea and then just randomly decided to give them to the Ukrainians that would have worked. Also they’re not very big ships I believe they could sail up the Rhine and down the Danube. There is a canal that connects those two rivers and it looks like the ships fit.
Ultimately though Ukrainians may not be able to effectively deploy them at the moment without having them destroyed. They do not have the naval capability to protect them. So it may be in their best interest to not have them in the Black Sea and till the war is over.
They can’t use Danube. There is no way they can pass through Hungary and Serbia.
That is a good point. I wonder what if any freedom of navigation treatise exists for the Danube. I am not sure if the Danube River Conference is still a thing or what it said on ships of war.
Still I think that ultimately they couldn’t be deployed until after hostilities cease.