Drones Sink One Cargo Ship and Damage Another Off Bulgaria, Leaving 11 Sailors Missing

Drones struck two merchant ships in the Black Sea off Bulgaria's coast overnight on Monday into Tuesday. One vessel sank. Eleven crew members remain missing. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev summoned the Russian ambassador and said the logic of the attacks benefits the Russian Federation, though he stopped short of a direct accusation.

The Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity sank about 17 nautical miles east of the village of Krapets, near the Romanian border. It had sent a distress signal reporting a fire and a drone attack shortly after 1 a.m. Five or six crew members were rescued. Search operations continued for the remaining 11. Bulgarian President Iliana Iotova identified the ship. The second vessel, the Maltese-flagged Chelsea-3, was hit by three aerial drones about 18 nautical miles east of Byala. All 15 crew members, seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis, were evacuated. Five sustained minor injuries and were taken to Varna.

This is the second such incident in a week. On October 6, drones sank the Alfa Watan in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone. All 10 crew members, most of them Syrian, are missing. Another ship was damaged in that earlier attack. The latest strikes occurred closer to the Bulgarian coast than the previous ones. Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said Bulgaria would deploy additional unmanned systems and strengthen monitoring of the Black Sea. He spoke with counterparts in Romania and Turkey.

Radev convened an emergency Security Council meeting. He scheduled a call with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and sought technical assistance from the alliance and the European Union for the investigation. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha blamed Russia and said the attacks showed disregard for civilian lives and maritime security. Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova met Radev and said she had received no information from the Russian Defense Ministry about the incidents.

The attacks pull NATO member Bulgaria more directly into the risks of the Russia-Ukraine war. Commercial shipping in the western Black Sea has already faced threats from mines and occasional strikes. The loss of two ships in one week, with more than 20 crew members missing across both incidents, raises insurance costs and forces rerouting of cargo. Bulgaria has not confirmed the type of drones used or recovered wreckage that would identify their origin.

The Chelsea-3 had called at the Romanian port of Tulcea on October 3 before heading toward the Bulgarian coast. It was traveling from Turkey toward Moldova. The HS Dignity was sailing from Algeria to Romania. Both were ordinary commercial cargo vessels, not military transports. Their targeting in international waters near NATO territory expands the geographic reach of the Black Sea fighting beyond Ukrainian ports.

Bulgarian officials continue the search for the missing sailors from the HS Dignity. The investigation will focus on debris recovery and any electronic signatures from the drones. Until those findings are public, the attribution rests on the pattern of previous attacks and the assessment that Ukraine has little reason to strike ships carrying its own citizens or allies. For the families of the 11 still missing, the priority is the ongoing rescue operation in waters that have become more dangerous in the past ten days.