Turkey is restricting some commercial ship traffic into the Black Sea, according to people familiar with the matter, following growing concern from the government over an uptick in Russian and Ukrainian attacks on vessels in the area.

The Directorate General of Coastal Safety has told multiple ships bound for Russia’s Novorossiysk – a key oil and grain export hub – that it isn’t currently issuing transit permits for such voyages, or needs more time to review applications via the Dardanelles Strait, the people said.

Authorities haven’t given any explanation for the move, they added, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Some vessels have been told the restriction also applies to ships heading to Ukraine, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

The delay effectively limits the flow of vessels into the Black Sea, where a surge in attacks on merchant shipping, including Turkish-owned vessels, has drawn calls from Ankara for greater security.

The Directorate General of Coastal Safety referred questions to the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry in Ankara, which didn’t respond to email or phone requests for comment outside usual business hours.

Ships with other destinations appear unaffected. Vessels bound for Bulgarian, Romanian, Georgian and Turkish ports continued to head north through the Dardanelles on August 8, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Earlier this week, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said a group of its citizens were injured after drone attacks on two Turkish-owned vessels. 

“We reiterate our call to all relevant actors, especially the warring parties, to urgently implement concrete measures to ensure navigational safety in the Black Sea,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on August 4, adding that escalation would have “multifaceted negative consequences,” including for food security.

In July, a Turkish ship was also hit near the Caspian Pipeline Consortium oil terminal at Novorossiysk, among a series of strikes that have forced the facility to halt and restart loadings multiple times in recent weeks. 

The latest delays threaten to add a fresh complication to global trade at a time when oil flows are already being significantly disrupted by the war in Iran, and a reduction in volumes through the Strait of Hormuz. 

The intensifying Russian and Ukrainian attacks have caused concern over supplies from the Black Sea grain region too, helping to push wheat prices to a two-year high in July.

Chokepoints

The Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits run through Turkish waters to connect the Black Sea to the Aegean, and are some of the most heavily used waterways in the world. 

Over 40,000 ships passed through the Bosphorus in 2025, according to data from the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry. 

Turkey is bound by a 1936 convention to ensure freedom of passage for merchant vessels through the straits, but also has the right to regulate navigational safety.

While the NATO member has sought to maintain ties with both Ukraine and Russia during the war, the conflict has disrupted shipping through the straits before.

In 2022, Ankara demanded that ships provide extra documentation to prove the validity of their insurance following European Union sanctions that excluded some shipments from cover.