Drones sink cargo ship in Bulgaria’s Black Sea zone in first such attack there; crew still missing

Sea and aerial drones struck two commercial vessels in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea early Tuesday, sinking one of them and leaving its crew missing, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said. It was the first attack on shipping in the NATO member’s economic zone, The Associated Press reported, via CBC News. The Togo-flagged Alfa Watan suffered critical structural damage and went down at the scene, while the Palau-flagged Able caught fire. The origin of the drones has not been established.

The attacks happened at about 3 a.m. local time (8 p.m. ET Monday) roughly 70 nautical miles east of the coastal town of Byala, according to Bulgaria’s state news agency BTA. The Bulgarian ro-ro passenger ferry Dioscuria saw an explosion involving the first ship and headed to the site, but found only an overturned boat, three overturned life rafts and life jackets. The search for the Alfa Watan’s crew was continuing Tuesday. Authorities were also watching for oil spills and other pollution.

The Dioscuria also reached the burning Able and took all 18 of its crew aboard: 11 Turkish nationals and seven Indian nationals. A fast Bulgarian navy craft picked up two injured sailors, one with burns and one with a head injury, and took them toward the port of Varna, where naval hospital teams were waiting, BTA said. The other 16 were brought ashore by a border police patrol boat. Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said two helicopters had been sent to carry rescuers and a Su-25 aircraft prepared for low-speed reconnaissance to look for survivors, Türkiye Today reported.

Radev said the Able was carrying wheat and heading south, while the Alfa Watan was heading north with unknown cargo. Türkiye Today said both ships were Turkish-owned, the Alfa Watan by Mersin-based Baraka Shipping and the Able by Istanbul-based Ocean Eagle. “This is an absolutely unacceptable attack in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone. It is an absolutely blatant violation of international law and maritime law,” Radev said after an emergency meeting. He warned that the war was spreading geographically and raising the risk of a global conflict, and that the attacks were “seriously disrupting shipping in the Black Sea, driving up insurance costs even further.”

Speaking to reporters later, Radev said it was not yet clear where the drones came from, “but they were clearly either Russian or Ukrainian,” BTA reported. The Independent cited a maritime security source as saying initial assessments suggested the strike was probably Russian, and said Russia did not immediately comment. NATO declined to comment and referred questions to Bulgarian authorities, the AP reported.

The strikes came a day after a Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying corn caught fire after a drone attack and sank in the Black Sea off Romania, killing two people; 11 crew members were rescued. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russian drones for that attack. Russia’s Defence Ministry said Tuesday its forces had hit a bulk carrier carrying what it called dual-use goods in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, along with port infrastructure in Izmail. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said attacks on civilian ships were unacceptable. “Commercial ships – and innocent crews – are being targeted, with lives already lost at sea,” she said.

The risks for shipping were already rising. Türkiye Today reported that London’s Joint War Committee has expanded the Black Sea high-risk zone to cover the entire Black and Azov seas, except the 12-mile territorial waters of Bulgaria, Romania, Türkiye and Georgia, pushing up insurance premiums. In Sofia, opposition parties called on President Iliana Iotova to convene the Consultative Council for National Security. Radev said that was the president’s decision, but warned the body could become a platform for misusing the incident. He also said Bulgaria was monitoring a crewless vessel that was struck in August and has been drifting, and was ready to act if it heads toward the coast.

Sources: CBC News (The Associated Press); BTA Bulgarian News Agency; Türkiye Today; The Independent.