Drones Strike Two Cargo Ships Off Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast, Sinking One and Leaving Its Crew Missing

Two cargo ships were struck by drones in the Black Sea on Tuesday morning, sinking one vessel and leaving its entire crew unaccounted for, in what maritime officials describe as the first reported drone attack on commercial shipping inside Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, according to Reuters and Bulgaria’s public broadcaster BNR.

The office of President Iliana Iotova confirmed that two ships were hit by drones in Bulgaria’s Black Sea economic zone, Reuters reported, without providing further details. The Bulgarian presidency confirmation came as a large-scale rescue operation was already under way east of Cape St. Athanasius, roughly 80 nautical miles off the Bulgarian coast near the town of Byala in the Varna district, BNR reported.

Both vessels sent out distress signals at around 4 a.m. local time, and by approximately 9 a.m. one of them had vanished from the radar of the Bulgarian Border Police, BNR’s Varna correspondent reported. The missing vessel is the ALFA WATAN, a Togo-flagged ship en route from Istanbul to the Romanian port of Sulina, which sank following the strikes, according to maritime intelligence service VesselTracker. The fate of its crew remains unknown, and search-and-rescue teams were still combing the area at the time of reporting, BNR said.

The second vessel, the ABLE, sailing under the flag of Palau, was seriously damaged when a fire broke out on board as a result of the drone attacks, VesselTracker reported. All 18 crew members were forced to abandon the burning ship and were rescued by the Bulgarian ferry Dioscuria, which diverted from its Constanta-to-Varna route to reach the scene. Some of the rescued sailors had been injured and received first aid directly on board the ferry, with on-duty rescue units coordinating their medical evacuation to shore-based hospitals, according to VesselTracker.

The rescue effort also drew in the Saint Kitts-Nevis-flagged cargo vessel Mercy as well as Romanian Coast Guard vessels and a helicopter operated by the General Inspectorate of Aviation, VesselTracker reported.

The incident has triggered an emergency response at the highest level in Sofia. Prime Minister Rumen Radev convened a meeting with representatives of the ministries of defence, interior, transport and environment, the office of the president and the security services, the government’s information service said, according to BNR. Radev was scheduled to address the media at 11:15 a.m.

The strikes came a day after a separate attack on Monday in which Ukraine accused Russia of striking a Romanian vessel in the Black Sea — an incident this site reported on October 5. Neither Bulgarian nor Romanian authorities have publicly attributed Tuesday’s strikes to any party, and no individual or state has claimed responsibility.

Why It Matters

This attack marks a threshold moment for the war’s reach into the Black Sea’s commercial lanes. Maritime observers note it is the first reported drone strike on vessels operating inside the exclusive economic zone of Bulgaria — a NATO member — which carries a different weight than attacks in contested or Ukrainian-adjacent waters, according to VesselTracker’s reporting on the incident.

The pattern is unmistakable and accelerating. Two ships hit in a single morning, one sunk within hours, follows Monday’s deadly strike on the Romanian vessel. Commercial shipping that keeps grain, energy and manufactured goods moving through the Black Sea is now being hit at a pace measured in hours rather than months — a tempo that raises the cost of every voyage, from insurance premiums to crew recruitment, long after the smoke clears.

Who did it remains the open question with the highest stakes. No official has publicly named the attacker, and unverified attribution would only muddy the record. But the context — a war in which both sides have demonstrated long-range drone capability against maritime targets — means the answer, when it comes, will shape whether this is treated as a battlefield spillover or a deliberate widening of the conflict toward NATO-adjacent waters.

Three things to watch now: the Bulgarian government’s statement and whether it names a suspect; the outcome of the search for the ALFA WATAN’s crew; and how shipping insurers and NATO partners respond to a strike inside a member state’s economic zone — a scenario war-risk underwriters have priced for years but rarely had to confront in these waters.

Sources

Reuters: Drones strike two ships in Bulgaria’s Black Sea zone – President
Radio Bulgaria (BNR): Drones hit two ships 80 nautical miles off the Bulgarian coast
VesselTracker: Maritime intelligence on the October 6 Black Sea drone strikes