Bulgaria Reports One Ship Sunk, One Damaged in Latest Drone Strike
Early Tuesday, two more vessels were hit by suspected Russian drone strikes off the coast of Bulgaria, injuring five and sinking one ship. The attacks were the latest in a long string of strikes on Black Sea merchant shipping, dating back to early 2022 and increasingly employed by both sides of the conflict.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced the news of the latest attacks in a statement Tuesday. The vessels were hit outside of the nation's territorial seas, he claimed.
At about 0130 hours local time, the Ukrainian-operated coastal freighter Chelsea 3 made a distress call, reporting that it had been hit three times by aerial drones. The 15 crewmembers were evacuated and taken to the port of Varna, Radev said. Five of the seafarers were injured and needed medical care.
Additionally, Radev said that his ministers had been informed of a second vessel strike at a position about 17 nautical miles off Krapets. The as-yet-unnamed ship was sunk, he said. Only one crewmember from this vessel had been rescued at the time of his announcement early Tuesday.
Just last week, a suspected Russian drone strike sank a merchant ship off the Bulgarian coast, leaving all 12 crewmembers lost at sea. Another ship sustained serious damage but remained afloat. Russia has denied involvement in these earlier attacks.
While Bulgaria has denounced the kinetic strikes and has called for a cessation of the violence, its leaders have stopped short of naming a suspect just yet. "We do not have clear and conclusive evidence to attribute responsibility to either side. However, as I have already stated, the logic suggests that the outcome benefits the Russian Federation. I will therefore summon the Russian Ambassador for a meeting today," said Radev on Tuesday.
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Last week, Bulgarian President Illiana Iotova called for greater cooperation on drone defense at sea among the three NATO members most affected - Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. She has also suggested that other NATO member states should provide assistance in the form of maritime surveillance and counter-drone technologies to help defend the alliance's easternmost shores.
Top image: Chelsea 3 at Istanbul, 2016 (Cengiz Tokgoz / VesselFinder)
