Turkey’s defense ministry has said an unmanned aerial vehicle washed ashore on the Black Sea coast in Ordu province and was assessed to have likely been Russian, with specialists inspecting it and finding no explosives.
The ministry spokesperson said in a weekly briefing that the UAV was found on Tuesday on the beach in Ünye, a district of Ordu, a province on Turkey’s northern coast about 450 miles east of İstanbul.
A team from the Underwater Defense Group Command (SAS) was sent to the area on Wednesday. The UAV did not contain explosives, according to the ministry, and was handed over to the Ünye Police Department for examination.
The ministry did not publicly identify the UAV model or say how it reached Turkey’s coast. In its statement on Thursday, it said it was “assessed” as Russian.
The incident comes amid greater Black Sea security concerns linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the spillover risks for NATO members and partners in the region. Turkey controls access between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and has sought to avoid escalation while maintaining ties with both Moscow and Kyiv.
Turkey has reported other drone-related incidents near its Black Sea coastline in recent months.
In December Turkey said its F-16 fighter jets shot down an “out of control” drone that approached Turkish airspace from the Black Sea. Turkey later warned both Russia and Ukraine to act with caution to protect Black Sea security as investigators worked to determine the drone’s origin.
Days after the downing of the drone, Turkish authorities launched an investigation into a separate UAV that crashed in Kocaeli province, east of İstanbul, with an initial government review suggesting it could have been a Russian-made Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone.
More recently, fishermen spotted an object believed to be a UAV in the sea off İstanbul’s Black Sea coast near Karaburun on February 5, with coast guard teams dispatched and examinations continuing. Turkey has not issued an official identification for that object.