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A series of incidents at Black Sea ports and off the coast of Ukraine has raised questions about a quiet but growing maritime tension between Türkiye and Russia, as passenger vessels are turned away and a Türkiye-flagged tanker comes under drone fire.
At the beginning of November, a test passenger voyage between Trabzon, a major Black Sea port in northeastern Türkiye, and the Russian resort city of Sochi ran into unexpected trouble.
The first sailing on the route, operated by the Turkish Ro-Ro vessel Seabridge – a roll-on/roll-off ferry designed to carry both passengers and vehicles – was reportedly held off Sochi for about forty-eight hours, despite having all documentation in order.
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Russian special units then boarded the ship and, according to accounts from the scene, carried out an intensive search that lasted around eight hours. Divers went underwater to check the hull, while passengers remained unable to disembark for days. Russian media commentaries suggested the vessel was treated as though it were an “enemy boat.”
In the end, Seabridge was allowed into the port area but was not permitted to berth at the quay, and returned to Trabzon without disembarking any passengers in Sochi.
Weeks after the Sochi episode, a comparable scene unfolded in Istanbul. The Russian cruise ship Astoria Grande, which operates regular services from Russia to Türkiye and Mediterranean ports, requested permission late on Thursday night to dock at Sarayburnu.
Sarayburnu is the historic waterfront area at the tip of Istanbul’s old peninsula, facing the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea, and is one of the city’s main cruise berths. On this occasion, however, the Astoria Grande’s request to come alongside was rejected.
The ship, carrying 616 Russian tourists, waited offshore for hours before turning back towards the Black Sea. Because Astoria Grande is described as the first international Russian cruise ship to run regular routes to Türkiye and the wider Mediterranean, the refusal has triggered questions in Moscow about the reasons behind the decision.
As these port access disputes played out, another incident added to the pressure along the Black Sea corridor. The Türkiye-flagged tanker MT Orinda was hit by a drone strike while unloading liquefied petroleum gas at the Ukrainian port of Izmail.
Sixteen crew members were evacuated from the ship and there were no injuries, but the vessel caught fire after the impact. The attack took place in the wider Odessa region, an area that has frequently been targeted by Russian unmanned aerial vehicles during the conflict in Ukraine.
No official statement about responsibility for the strike had been issued at the time of reporting.
So far, neither side has issued a statement directly linking the incidents or defining them as part of a broader confrontation. Even so, local assessments suggest there is a “silent but rising” tension at sea, hinting that the Black Sea may be heading into a period of greater sensitivity in terms of both security and diplomacy.
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