By The Daily Wire (World News) | Created at 2026-10-07 15:40:53 | Updated at 2026-10-07 21:10:41
10 hours ago
A cargo ship sank Tuesday after a drone attack inside the Black Sea economic zone of NATO member Bulgaria, with Ukraine accusing Russia of carrying out the strike.
Drones attacked the Togo-flagged cargo ship Alfa Watan roughly 70 nautical miles east of the Bulgarian coastal town of Byala, inside Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, according to Bulgarian officials.
The vessel suffered catastrophic structural damage before sinking, according to maritime security officials, Fox News reported. Rescuers found an overturned lifeboat, life rafts and life jackets floating in the debris field, but they located no members of the crew.
Bulgaria halted search and rescue efforts Tuesday night, officials said Wednesday. The fate of the crew aboard the sunken vessel remains unknown.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had confirmed the details of the attack with Bulgarian authorities and that Russian forces were responsible.
“Our Navy contacted its counterparts in Bulgaria, and it has been established that this was a combined Russian attack using maritime and aerial drones,” Zelenskyy said. He added that Ukrainian forces had conducted no operations in the area.
Zelenskyy accused Russia of attempting to make the western Black Sea “completely unfit for navigation,” calling the latest incident another attack on civilian vessels.
The Russian Embassy in Bulgaria denied that Russia had targeted the vessel, according to Reuters.
The attack occurred inside Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, placing it within the maritime economic zone of a NATO member state. An exclusive economic zone extends up to 200 nautical miles from a country’s coastline and gives the coastal nation rights over natural resources and certain economic activities. It is not the same as territorial waters, which extend only 12 nautical miles from the coast and which international law treats as part of a country’s sovereign territory. Foreign commercial and military vessels retain freedom of navigation through the zone under international maritime law.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev called the attack “absolutely unacceptable” and warned that it would further threaten safe navigation in the Black Sea.
“Two merchant vessels were attacked by maritime and aerial drones,” Radev said. “The first vessel, sailing under the flag of Togo, sank. The second sustained damage and caught fire.”
The attack also struck a second commercial vessel, the Able, which caught fire while carrying grain. It was flying the flag of Palau. A Bulgarian vessel rescued all 18 crew members aboard, including 11 Turkish nationals and 7 Indian nationals. Two crew members suffered serious injuries, and rescuers airlifted them to a medical facility in Varna, while the remaining 16 sailors made it safely ashore.
Radev thanked the Bulgarian Navy, Air Force, Border Police, Maritime Rescue Center in Varna and medical teams involved in responding to the attack and rescuing the sailors aboard the damaged vessel.
The Bulgarian government has also acknowledged gaps in the country’s ability to defend against unmanned systems operating in its airspace and maritime territory.
“The issue of acquiring the respective capabilities for Bulgaria to counter unmanned systems in the airspace and maritime space requires time, consistency, systematicity, and significant financial resources,” Radev said.
He said Bulgaria has begun a process to acquire additional capabilities and is moving forward with plans to purchase five additional anti-aircraft missile systems.
The incident comes as Russia and Ukraine have increasingly used drones and other unmanned systems across the Black Sea, raising concerns about the safety of civilian shipping in waters that international commercial vessels use.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also expressed concern over the attacks, saying commercial shipping in the Black Sea was increasingly coming under threat.
“The situation in the Black Sea is increasingly concerning,” von der Leyen said. “Commercial ships – and innocent crews – are being targeted, with lives already lost at sea.”
Von der Leyen noted that the attack hit the two vessels in Bulgaria’s economic zone just one day after an attack struck and sank a Turkish ship carrying Ukrainian grain off the Romanian coast.
“While exact circumstances of these incidents are still being established, the developments are very concerning,” she said. “Attacks on civilian shipping are unacceptable.”
Von der Leyen said the European Union stands “in full solidarity” with its member states on the eastern flank.
