Drones struck two ships in the Black Sea off Bulgaria on Tuesday, sinking one and prompting emergency rescue operations, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said.
Rescuers evacuated all 15 crew members from one ship, the Maltese-flagged Chelsea 3, with five receiving treatment for minor injuries, Radev said in a video posted to social media.
The crew, which included seven Ukrainian citizens and eight Azerbaijan citizens, reported the ship’s deck and hull were hit by three aerial drones.
One crew member from the sunken vessel was rescued, Radev added, without providing details about the others aboard. The strikes on the two ships occurred 18 and 17 miles (29 and 27.5 kilometres) from the Bulgarian coast.
During an emergency meeting of Bulgaria’s Security Council on Tuesday, Radev called the attacks “absolutely unacceptable” and said Bulgaria was seeking NATO and European Union assistance.
While authorities do not possess clear evidence on who was responsible for the drone attacks, “logic, as I have already stated, indicates that the result is in favor of the Russian Federation,” Radev said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “strongly condemned” the drone incidents and said the Black Sea “has become another front of escalation” in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“This is unacceptable. I strongly condemn the drone attacks on merchant ships near Bulgaria’s coast. Putting the lives of the crew in grave danger and threatening security in the Black Sea,” she said in a post on X.
Russia did not immediately comment on Tuesday’s incident.
Radev said he would summon the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria, Eleonora Mitrofanova, for a conversation Tuesday.
