Drone Strike Sinks Cargo Ship in Bulgaria’s Black Sea Zone, Crew Missing as Search Continues

A merchant ship sank in the Black Sea off Bulgaria on Tuesday after a drone attack inside the NATO member’s exclusive economic zone, leaving its crew missing and prompting a search at sea, according to Reuters. A second vessel was also hit, and its crew was rescued.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev described the strike as a gross violation of international law, according to Reuters. The attack, carried out by air and sea drones about 112 km (70 miles) off the coastal town of Byala, was the first of its kind in Bulgarian waters, shipping sources told Reuters. Bulgaria’s Varna Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre launched a search operation after the sunken vessel disappeared from radar on Tuesday morning; rescue teams found an overturned lifeboat, life rafts and life jackets, but no sign of the crew, according to vessel tracking reports.

Two ships hit, one crew brought ashore

The British maritime risk group Vanguard identified the vessels as the Togo-flagged general cargo ship Alfa Watan and the Palau-flagged Able, both of which issued distress signals, Reuters reported. The crew of the grain-carrying ship was rescued with two people injured, while the Togo-flagged vessel sank, according to Reuters. Vessel tracking reports said 18 crew members from the second ship — 11 Turkish and seven Indian nationals — were picked up by a nearby ferry and transferred to Bulgarian Border Police vessels bound for Varna, and that aircraft were also checking for any oil spill.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the attacks on Tuesday, saying that commercial ships and their crews were being targeted and that the situation in the Black Sea was increasingly concerning while the circumstances were investigated, according to Reuters.

Attacker not yet identified

It was not immediately clear who launched the drones. Radev did not name an attacker but referred to Russia’s war in Ukraine, warning that the conflict would keep widening if it was not ended, according to Reuters. A maritime security source told Reuters an initial assessment suggested the strike was probably a Russian attack; Russia did not immediately comment. The incident follows earlier Russian strikes on cargo vessels in the Black Sea and a separate episode on Monday in which Romanian authorities said two people died in a fire aboard a ship outside Romania’s territorial waters — an incident Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed on Russian drones, according to Reuters, which said Russian authorities did not immediately comment on that claim either.

Reporting based on coverage by Reuters and vesseltracker.com.