Seven sailors are missing after drones hit two tankers off Romania — one of them inside NATO waters

Rescue crews searched the Black Sea on Thursday for seven missing sailors after drones struck two chemical tankers near Romania's coast and set both vessels ablaze, Reuters reported.

The two ships were anchored near the mouth of the Sulina canal, a shipping route into the Danube River that serves as a major export corridor for Ukraine. The San Marino-flagged Wine Trader was hit 13 nautical miles southeast of the Sulina canal, about a mile outside Romanian waters; five of its 12 crew were rescued and seven were reported missing, Romanian officials said. The Comoros-flagged Yara J caught fire eight to 10 miles southeast of Sulina, inside Romanian waters, late on Wednesday. All of its crew were safe, Reuters reported.

Inside NATO territory — a first

Romanian President Nicușor Dan said the two ships had been struck by drones but declined to say whether Russia was responsible, according to Reuters. A NATO military source told the news agency the drones were of Russian origin.

The Yara J strike matters because it landed inside Romanian territorial waters, Romanian officials confirmed, with Russian drones entering the country's airspace the same night. And territorial waters carry weight in an alliance built on collective defence — Canada is a NATO member, and Canadian sailors, diplomats and troops serve in NATO missions.

A pattern, not an isolated attack

The attacks are the latest in a series of drone strikes on commercial shipping in the western Black Sea. Reuters reported that at least five other cargo vessels have been hit near the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria over the past 10 days, with at least 23 sailors reported missing or dead. Those earlier attacks occurred outside NATO territorial waters.

Romania's foreign minister, Oana Țoiu, condemned what she called brutal attacks on civilians and said Russia bore full responsibility. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said his country suspected Moscow but acknowledged investigators lacked definitive proof. Dan and Radev met NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Brussels on Thursday, European media reported.

Why it matters for Canada

Both Ukraine and Romania are major grain exporters, and attacks on Black Sea shipping lanes threaten global food supply chains — the kind of disruption Canada watches closely as one of the world's largest grain exporters. NATO said it was in contact with Romanian officials, and search-and-rescue teams faced heavy seas that made the operation unsafe at times.