Germany has been trying to extract sunken munitions on its own, while Russia has been left out of the loop completely
Recovering ammunition still buried on the Baltic Sea floor after World War II must be an international effort rather than a unilateral action by any one nation, an expert has told RT. Germany recently completed a pilot project to recover the sunken munitions, prompting concerns about potential implications for the environment.
An estimated 1.6 million tons of wartime ammunition, primarily left by Nazi Germany, are scattered across the seabed of the North and Baltic seas. While most of them are conventional shells, some 40 tons contain deadly chemical agents, such as mustard gas, phosgene, and other compounds. The munitions have been deteriorating over the decades and now pose a hazard to the marine environment and, potentially, to coastal areas.
The recovery and disposal of the munitions must be organized through an international effort to minimize the risks of a major environmental catastrophe in the Baltic, Bernhard Trautvetter, a German publicist and peace activist, believes.
“The question was how to deal with the recovery of these poison time bombs for the biosphere of the Baltic Sea. Of course, due to the corrosion of these vessels, there is a danger for the fish and the plants, and other countries,” Trautvetter told RT on Sunday.
The NATO states of the Baltic region, as well as Russia, which has access to the waterway through its Kaliningrad enclave and the St. Petersburg area, must join forces to “pull this time bomb out of the world,” he added.
Berlin launched a recovery project in 2023, starting the work in Lubeck Bay. The pilot phase concluded in April of this year. The German authorities declared it a success yet admitted some adjustments were needed for areas with a high density of discarded ammunition.
Russia has long raised concerns over the toxic legacy of World War II in the Baltic, calling for an international recovery operation. However, Moscow was effectively left out of this effort due to its souring relations with the West.
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