Drone Attack Sinks Cargo Ship Off Bulgaria, 11 Sailors Missing

Eleven sailors are missing after a drone attack sank a cargo ship off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast overnight, Bulgarian officials said on Tuesday. A second cargo ship was hit by three drones in the same waters. All 15 members of its crew were rescued.

Rescuers pulled five crew members from the sunken ship. The search for the other 11 went on through Tuesday off the village of Krapets, close to Bulgaria's border with Romania. President Iliana Iotova identified the sunken vessel as the HS Dignity, a Guinea-Bissau flagged cargo ship sailing toward the Romanian port of Braila with a partial cargo. Vessel tracking data cited by Reuters showed the ship had earlier called at Mostaganem in Algeria.

The second ship, the Malta flagged Chelsea-3, took three drone hits, Bulgarian officials said. Its crew of seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis got off safely and none was seriously injured. The Associated Press reported the attacks happened roughly 32 to 34 kilometres off the Bulgarian coast.

Bulgaria summons Russia's ambassador

Bulgaria stopped short of accusing Russia outright. Prime Minister Rumen Radev called the attack absolutely unacceptable in a televised address and said its outcome benefits the Russian Federation. Sofia summoned Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova. The Bulgarian government said afterward that Mitrofanova told Radev she had no information from the Russian Defence Ministry about the attacks, and did not rule out a provocation by a third party. Moscow offered no immediate public comment.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the attacks on X and called the Black Sea another front of escalation in Russia's war, saying those responsible should be held accountable. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the strike showed Moscow's disregard for civilian lives and called the Black Sea a lifeline for world food security.

Second deadly sinking in a week

This is the second deadly sinking in these waters in a week. A week earlier, a ship hit by drones sank in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone and nine Syrian sailors and one Egyptian were lost. Another ship was hit the same night and its crew was rescued. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance will keep adjusting its military presence on its eastern flank as needed.

Why it matters

Russia has bombed Ukraine's Black Sea ports through more than four years of war. That has pushed Ukraine toward river ports on the Danube and shipping routes that hug the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania, both NATO members. Ukraine, in turn, has struck at Russian grain ships in other parts of the Black Sea and in the Sea of Azov. Russia and Ukraine are two of the world's biggest grain exporters. Every attack near NATO waters raises the risk for food shipments and for the alliance itself.

What happens next turns on the search off Krapets and on the answers Sofia gets from Moscow. Shipowners using the coastal route to dodge the fighting farther north now have to judge whether that route is still the safer one.