Almost 8,000 ships bound for Russian ports have been inspected since July 2025.

Since July 2025, an underwater inspection of 7,983 civilian vessels bound for Russian seaports from abroad has been conducted, Izvestia found out. Such measures should protect harbors and ships entering them from possible actions by foreign underwater saboteurs.

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Most of the units were examined in the ports of the Baltic Sea — 4185. Then there are harbors of the Sea of Azov — 1473 and Primorsky Krai — 856 inspections. 744 ships were examined in the Black Sea ports.

Inspections are carried out on the basis of Presidential Decree No. 502 and Government Decree, which regulates the procedure for checking ships arriving from foreign ports. Special attention is paid to ships from unfriendly States.

Currently, divers are facing a number of problems, including the lack of clear rules of action when detecting suspicious objects. For example, on one of the ships, a suspicious hatch was found in the underwater part of the hull, screwed with clean bolts, although everything was overgrown with algae. This raised suspicions about the possible placement of explosives. As a result, the ship was banned from entering the port.

In Ukraine and in unfriendly Western countries, they have repeatedly declared an economic war with our country, and civilian ships have already become targets, military expert Dmitry Boltenkov told Izvestia.

"Sabotage can be carried out with the help of mercenaries," he explained.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Underwater treatments: how Russian ports are protected from underwater saboteurs