Ukraine unable to defuse its mines in Black Sea, shifted task to NATO: Russian official

Kyiv [Ukraine], April 3 (ANI/Sputnik): Ukraine is unable to defuse its own mines drifting in the Black Sea and has passed this task on to NATO, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Mikhail Popov said on Sunday.
"NATO instructors have been actively training Ukrainian soldiers, conducted joint drills with the Ukrainian navy. And exactly one year ago in March, the Ukrainian navy together with NATO fleet performed training of anti-mine forces and equipment. Only, it seems, they did not learn anything," Popov told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
"Ukraine cannot defuse drifting mines on its own, by default transferring this task to NATO," Popov added.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) warned earlier that the Ukrainian army has set about 420 mines close to its seaports, with some of them swept into the sea. The FSB did not excluded the possibility of them drifting into the Bosporus Strait and then the Mediterranean Sea. (ANI/Sputnik)