Two merchant ships were struck by drones in Bulgaria’s Black Sea economic zone, sinking one vessel and forcing the evacuation of another in an unprecedented incident off the NATO member’s coast. Sofia says the crews confirmed attacks by both aerial and maritime drones, but authorities have yet to determine who was responsible.
SOFIA, Oct 6 (BalkanView) — Two commercial vessels were hit by drones in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea overnight, sinking one ship and forcing the evacuation of another in the first reported attack of its kind off the Bulgarian coast.
The Togo-flagged ALFA WATAN sank after the attack and its crew remained missing, while all 18 crew members of the Palau-flagged ABLE were evacuated, according to Bulgarian and international reports.
Two crew members from the ABLE were seriously injured, one suffering burns and another a head injury.
The incident occurred about 70 nautical miles east of the Bulgarian coastal town of Byala, according to Prime Minister Rumen Radev, who convened an emergency meeting involving the defence, interior, transport and environment ministries, the presidency and Bulgaria’s security services.
“It has been categorically confirmed by the crews that the two ships were attacked by drones,” Radev said, according to Bulgarian media.
He said both maritime and aerial drones had been involved and described the incident as a violation of international law.
Bulgarian authorities have not yet publicly attributed the attacks to a particular country or military force.
First such attack off Bulgaria
The attacks represent a significant escalation for Bulgaria, an EU and NATO member whose Black Sea coastline has increasingly been exposed to the spillover risks from Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The vessels were struck in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, or EEZ.
An EEZ is not the same as a country’s territorial waters. Bulgaria’s territorial sea extends 12 nautical miles from its coast, while the economic zone stretches much farther into the Black Sea and gives Sofia specific rights over natural resources and economic activity under international maritime law.
The ALFA WATAN had been travelling from Turkey towards the Romanian port of Sulina, according to vessel-tracking information cited by Deutsche Welle.
The ABLE was travelling in the opposite direction, from Romania towards Istanbul.
The 18-member crew of the ABLE included 11 Turkish and seven Indian nationals.
All were transferred to a Bulgarian vessel as rescue operations continued.
The fate of the crew of the ALFA WATAN remained unclear in the initial reports.
Bulgarian President Iliana Iotova cancelled a scheduled visit to Veliko Tarnovo following the attacks as authorities responded to the incident.
The government brought together representatives of key state institutions and security agencies to coordinate the response.
Who launched the drones?
The biggest unanswered question is who was responsible.
Bulgarian authorities said they would investigate the origin of the drones, and no definitive attribution had been announced in the initial official statements.
The incident comes amid an increasingly dangerous security environment in the Black Sea, where Russia and Ukraine have used aerial and maritime drones extensively during the war.
Commercial shipping has also faced growing risks as attacks have expanded around ports and maritime transport routes.
The attack off Bulgaria followed another deadly maritime incident near neighbouring Romania a day earlier.
Romanian authorities said a commercial vessel sank in the Black Sea after a fire, killing two people while 11 sailors were rescued.
Romanian media reported that the Turkish vessel was carrying grain and had been hit by a drone.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed Russia for what he described as an attack on the vessel.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said on Monday that Russian forces had struck two Ukrainian cargo vessels in the Black Sea.
Those developments provide a tense regional backdrop to the Bulgarian incident, but do not by themselves establish who attacked the ALFA WATAN and ABLE.
War moves closer to NATO’s Black Sea flank
The strikes are likely to intensify concern over the security of civilian shipping in the western Black Sea.
Bulgaria and Romania are both NATO and European Union members, while Turkey, which controls access between the Black Sea and Mediterranean through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, is also a NATO ally.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Black Sea has become one of the war’s most strategically important theatres.
Ukraine has increasingly relied on unmanned maritime systems to challenge Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, while Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian ports and infrastructure involved in maritime exports.
The conflict has also generated repeated concerns over mines, drone debris and other military material reaching waters or territory belonging to neighbouring NATO states.
The latest incident is potentially more serious because commercial vessels were directly struck in Bulgaria’s economic zone.
It also raises questions about the security of shipping routes connecting Ukrainian and Romanian Black Sea ports with Turkey and the Mediterranean.
Sofia calls it a breach of international law
Radev described the attacks as a violation of international law as Bulgarian authorities concentrated first on rescuing the sailors and assessing the security and environmental consequences.
Officials will now have to determine what type of drones were used, where they were launched from and whether the two ships were deliberately targeted or struck in circumstances connected with wider military operations in the Black Sea.
Investigators are also expected to examine damage to the vessels and any recovered drone fragments that could help establish their origin.
The sinking of the ALFA WATAN could additionally pose environmental and navigational risks depending on its cargo and the amount of fuel aboard.
For Bulgaria, however, the incident carries implications beyond maritime safety.
The country has so far largely experienced the war in neighbouring Ukraine through political, economic and security repercussions rather than direct attacks on shipping in its own maritime economic zone.
That changed overnight.
The immediate priority remains the search for the missing crew of the ALFA WATAN and treatment of the injured sailors from the ABLE.
The larger question — who sent the drones into Bulgaria’s Black Sea economic zone and why two commercial vessels were hit — could determine whether the incident is treated as another dangerous spillover from the Ukraine war or as a more deliberate escalation in an increasingly contested Black Sea.