Ship sinks in new drone attack off Bulgaria, PM summons Russian ambassador

What the report says

Bulgaria’s prime minister, Rumen Radev, said a merchant vessel sank after drone strikes hit two ships off the country’s Black Sea coast, and he suggested Russia may have been responsible. The BBC reported that Radev summoned the Russian ambassador and said the incident was being treated as an unacceptable attack near Bulgaria’s territorial waters.

According to the article, one ship went down about 17 nautical miles east of Krapets, with one crew member rescued. The second vessel, identified by Radev as the Maltese-flagged Chelsea 3 and registered in Ukraine’s Odesa, was struck three times roughly 18 nautical miles from Byala; all 15 crew were rescued. Radev said five crew members suffered minor injuries. The report did not identify the sunken ship.

The attacks came about a week after two other commercial ships were hit in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, one of which later sank. Bulgaria has asked Nato and the EU for technical help in assessing the earlier incidents. Ukraine blamed Russia for the latest strikes, while Moscow did not publicly comment. Russian officials have previously said they were targeting ships linked to military supplies, but Kyiv and European leaders say civilian merchant vessels are being struck.

The developments matter because they add to tensions in the Black Sea, an important route for grain and other trade, and raise fresh questions about maritime security along Nato’s eastern flank.