Two Ships Hit in Drone Attacks off Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast, One Sinks With 11 Missing- Two ships have been struck in drone attacks off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, with one vessel sinking and 11 crew members reported missing, Bulgarian officials said, raising fresh concerns about the expanding security risks in the strategically important waterway.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev described the incident as “absolutely unacceptable,” saying another attack had occurred in the immediate vicinity of the country’s territorial waters.
According to Radev, the Ukrainian-owned vessel Chelsea 3, sailing under the Maltese flag, was hit by three drones at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, around 18 nautical miles, or 33 kilometres, off Bulgaria’s coast. The attack damaged the ship, although the full extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
A second vessel, identified by President Iliana Iotova as the HS Dignity, a cargo ship sailing under the flag of Guinea-Bissau, subsequently sank off the coast near the village of Krapets, close to Bulgaria’s border with Romania.
Five crew members were rescued, while 11 others remained missing at sea, according to Bulgarian officials. Authorities launched a search-and-rescue operation to locate the missing sailors and establish the circumstances surrounding the sinking.
The incidents have raised urgent questions about maritime safety in the Black Sea, where commercial shipping has faced growing risks amid the continuing Russia-Ukraine war.
Radev condemned the attacks in a televised address, calling them unacceptable and warning that the latest incident had occurred dangerously close to Bulgarian territorial waters.
He also acknowledged that there was no clear evidence establishing who was responsible for the attacks. Nevertheless, he argued that the outcome benefited Russia and announced that the Russian ambassador would be summoned over the incident.
His remarks reflected the heightened diplomatic sensitivity surrounding attacks on commercial vessels in the region. However, Bulgaria’s stated assessment of who might benefit from the incident is not proof of responsibility, and the available information does not establish who launched the drones.
Bulgaria’s position makes the incident particularly significant. As a member of NATO, the country occupies an important strategic location along the western Black Sea coast. The surrounding waters connect major ports, shipping routes and energy-trading networks used by countries across the region.
Russia and Ukraine both depend on the Black Sea for important maritime trade, including exports of agricultural products and other commodities. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the waterway has become an increasingly dangerous operating environment for commercial vessels, with military activity, drone attacks and threats to shipping complicating navigation.
The proximity of the latest attacks to Bulgarian territorial waters raises concerns about the potential spillover of the conflict into NATO’s maritime neighbourhood. Although an attack near a NATO member’s waters does not automatically constitute an attack on the alliance, incidents involving commercial ships can create serious security and diplomatic challenges.
For Bulgaria, the immediate priorities are locating the missing crew members, determining how the ships were attacked and establishing whether further vessels could be at risk.
The ongoing rescue operation will be critical in the hours ahead, particularly given the number of sailors still unaccounted for following the sinking of the HS Dignity.
Investigators will also need to establish whether the two vessels were targeted as part of the same incident, whether the drones originated from the same source and what their intended targets were.
For now, responsibility for the attacks remains unconfirmed. But with one ship sunk, 11 sailors missing and another vessel damaged, the incident underscores the growing dangers facing commercial shipping in the Black Sea and the potential for the Russia-Ukraine conflict to create wider regional security concerns. UK Plans Tougher AI Safety Rules as Government Warns Tech Firms Over Rogue AI Agents | Maya
