MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax) - Russian special services have detected traces of explosives in the hull of a foreign bulker heading from Turkey to Rostov-on-Don and denied it passage through the Kerch Strait, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday.
"The FSB carries out a system of inspection procedures in relation to vessels passing through the Kerch Strait ion order to prevent acts of terrorism and sabotage and ensure safe navigation,," it said.
While inspecting a foreign bulker heading from Turkey to a Rostov-on-Don port to be loaded with grain last Saturday, officers discovered "traces of explosive substances of dinitrotoluene and tetryl and indications of tampering with the bulker's structural elements," the FSB said.
"It was determined that the vessel was at the Ukrainian port of Kiliya at the end of May. The ship's crew comprised of twelve Ukrainian citizens was fully replaced and the bulker's name was changed at the Turkish port of Tuzla in July," it said.
"Said circumstances might indicate that the foreign civil vessel might have been used for delivering explosives to Ukraine " the FSB said.
The vessel was denied passage under the sailable arch of the Kerch Strait passage and left Russian territorial waters, it said.