Two commercial vessels have been struck by sea and air drones in the Black Sea off Bulgaria, triggering a major search-and-rescue operation and raising fresh concerns over the security of shipping in a NATO member’s maritime zone.
The incidents occurred about 80 miles off Bulgaria’s coast, with the vessels issuing distress signals at about 4 am local time. One subsequently disappeared from border police radar several hours later.
The merchant ship Alfa Watan, sailing under the Togolese flag, sank after an onboard explosion. Bulgarian authorities said rescuers had found only an overturned boat and life jackets so far, with no survivors.
A second ship, Able, was also struck and caught fire. Rescuers rescued 18 crew members, though two suffered serious injuries. One sustained burns and another suffered a head injury, while the remaining 16 were reported to be in good condition.
Read more related news:
Europe on red alert as Russia’s sabotage campaign raises fears of catastrophic miscalculation
Spy chief warns Germany risks being dragged into ‘violent conflict’ with Putin
Estonia moves brigade near to Russia’s border to prepare for ‘the first battles’
Labour is playing with British lives as Burnham leaves defence dangerously underfunded
The origin of the drones has not been established.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the search operation remained underway about 70 miles east of the town of Byala. During an extraordinary government meeting, he said emergency teams were still searching for the missing crew.
If confirmed as deliberate strikes, the attacks would represent a significant escalation in the risks facing commercial shipping in the Black Sea. Bulgaria, a NATO member, has previously sought to maintain security around its Black Sea coastline while the wider region has become increasingly militarised.
The incident also highlights the difficulty of protecting merchant shipping against relatively low-cost unmanned systems operating across a vast maritime area.
For insurers, shipowners and operators, the immediate concern is whether the attacks represent an isolated incident or evidence of a broader deterioration in maritime security.
The disappearance of one vessel from radar and the reported use of both airborne and maritime drones underline the increasingly complex threat environment facing commercial ships operating close to conflict zones.
With crews still missing and the perpetrators unidentified, Bulgarian authorities face pressure to establish what happened and whether the attack signals a new threat to shipping inside Nato territory.
European governments are warning that Russia’s campaign of sabotage, cyber-attacks, disinformation and other forms of coercion against NATO countries is becoming more aggressive, forcing the alliance to strengthen its defences while avoiding a confrontation that could escalate into open war.
The warnings come as European intelligence agencies increasingly focus on what they describe as Moscow’s use of activity below the threshold of conventional warfare to disrupt critical infrastructure, undermine political systems and weaken support for Ukraine.
“It’s full scale,” Latvia’s Foreign Minister Baiba Braže told The Hill.
“Those activities cannot be called hybrid anymore because they are actual attacks,” she added.
The assessment reflects a growing concern among European governments that the distinction between conventional and so-called grey-zone warfare is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
Braže said Latvia had experienced suspected acts of sabotage involving arson at facilities linked to military production and weapons storage. The country also faces pressure along its border with Belarus, where Latvian authorities have accused Minsk of using migration as a tool of coercion.
“It’s an organised migrant activity against the external border of NATO and the EU,” Braže said, describing it as a scheme involving Belarusian security forces and links to Russia.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said Russia was “systematically testing NATO’s vigilance and readiness to respond”, arguing that the incidents could not be treated as isolated events.
Leave a Comment