Drones Sank One Ship And Set Another On Fire In The Black Sea Off The Coast Of Bulgaria

• 6.10.2026, 11:35

The country's government is calling an emergency meeting.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday following a drone attack on two commercial vessels in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea. According to authorities, one vessel sank and the other caught fire after being struck, reports Sofia Globe.

As Rumen Nikolov, head of the Varna Maritime Rescue and Coordination Center, reported on BNR public radio, the crew of the sunken vessel is listed as missing. All 18 crew members of the second ship were rescued during a large-scale operation, though some sailors sustained injuries.

According to the Bulgarian maritime publication Maritime.bg, the dry cargo ship Alfa Watan, flying the Togolese flag, sank. The second vessel, the Able, flying the Palau flag, caught fire after being struck by a drone, forcing the crew to abandon ship. The sailors were picked up by the Bulgarian ferry Dioscuria, which participated in the rescue operation along with other vessels in the vicinity.

The circumstances of the attack and the origin of the drones remain unclear. Bulgarian authorities have launched an investigation. According to local media reports, this is the first recorded instance of an attack on commercial vessels in the exclusive economic zone of a NATO member state, underscoring the growing risks to civilian shipping in the Black Sea amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.