For most of the war, the Bosporus itself has been the quiet part of the Black Sea. Ships queued off Istanbul, paid their lighthouse fees and went north or south as they always had. The danger began past Rumeli Feneri, at the strait's northern mouth. In 2026 that danger moved…
About 110 ships a day sail through the middle of Istanbul. Turkey's transport ministry counted 40,172 transits of the Bosporus in 2025, and another…
Between January and June 2026, 19,277 ships passed through the Bosporus, according to Turkey's transport ministry. That is 107 a day, slightly fewer…
Every warship that wants to pass the Bosporus is governed by a treaty signed in a Swiss lakeside town in July 1936, before radar, before aircraft…
On 2 March 2026 the Russian minesweeper Valentin Pikul sank at its berth in Novorossiysk, according to Ukraine's defence ministry. It wasn't a famous…
On 6 January 2026 the tanker Elbus, flagged in Palau and heading for a Russian port, sailed north through the Bosporus past Dolmabahçe, Bebek and…
In Beykoz, on the Asian shore near the Bosporus's northern end, Turkey has set up the headquarters for the navy of a peace that doesn't exist yet. On…
