An investigation into a potential new drone strike on a vessel near Romania's Black Sea coastline was announced by authorities on Wednesday. Drone strikes attributed to Russia have targeted multiple vessels in Black Sea waters near Romania and Bulgaria over the past week, extending the conflict in Ukraine into the surrounding region.
According to an official statement, rescue teams from Romania were deployed through the night to assist the Comoros Islands-registered vessel Yara J, which encountered difficulties in waters off Sulina, close to the Ukrainian border. Defence Minister Radu Miruta reported that the vessel's crew had contained the fire on their own, while noting that an inquiry into whether a drone strike caused it remains ongoing. He described the situation as one of weight, pointing to the pattern of such events taking place within Romanian territorial waters.
According to data published on the VesselFinder tracking platform, the Yara J falls into the category of vessels certified to carry chemical and oil products. According to Miruta, the ship had been anchored near Sulina for a number of days and carried no cargo. A statement from the defence ministry noted that two F-18 aircraft had been dispatched in response to a cluster of unidentified aerial contacts picked up over the Black Sea.
On Wednesday, Bulgarian authorities attributed four drone strikes on Black Sea vessels over the preceding week — two of which went down — to Russia, while noting that definitive proof of Moscow's involvement had not been established. Sixteen people aboard two vessels that sank in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone and adjacent waters on Tuesday are at the centre of a rescue effort — five of them brought out alive, with eleven others yet to be located.
One vessel carries Guinea-Bissau registration, while the Chelsea-3 — a craft owned by Ukrainian interests, documented out of Odesa, and flying the Maltese flag of an EU member state — makes up the second. A spokesperson put forward the position that no rational basis exists for Ukraine to target vessels and personnel belonging to it, pointing instead to the pattern of incidents as one whose consequences consistently work in Russia's favour.
Radev, addressing Parliament in his capacity as prime minister, noted that establishing proof remained beyond what the government was currently able to do. Radev called in the Russian ambassador to Sofia on Tuesday, and the envoy indicated she had received no information from the Russian defence ministry, while also noting she could not exclude the possibility that the strikes were carried out by a third party seeking to provoke a response.
On Tuesday, the Dignity — a cargo ship sailing under Guinea-Bissau's flag — foundered after being struck by military forces. A crew of four — comprising three Syrian nationals and one Egyptian — was brought ashore at the port of Varna following a rescue operation, the district governor's office confirmed. According to Smarkov, all four individuals were found to be in a reasonable state of health, with no injuries reported among them.
One more crew member was due to come aboard before Wednesday drew to a close. The search for eleven crew members still unaccounted for was described by Smarkov as an active, ongoing effort.
Facing threats to merchant shipping, Bulgaria turned to international partners for investigative support and called on NATO to bolster its aerial surveillance infrastructure and capacity to counter drone-based attacks. Questions about how well Europe safeguards shipping lanes and offshore infrastructure in the Black Sea have resurfaced following the incidents, arriving over a year into an EU-led regional security initiative.
Presenting the Black Sea Security Strategy in May 2025, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas stated that the region was absorbing the knock-on effects of Russia's full-scale military campaign in Ukraine, and that it had become a focal point for hybrid operations. Broadening cooperation to counter cyber intrusions, the spread of false information, and related destabilising activities formed part of the stated agenda, with a spokesperson noting that repeated breaches of airspace and interference with ports and shipping routes underscored the need for action. The accompanying policy was designed to safeguard that maritime corridor along with offshore installations, undersea cables, and other infrastructure assets.
Plans also included establishing a Black Sea Maritime Security Hub — a body intended to bring together coast-guard forces and align their operations with broader regional support efforts. Seabed sensor readings would feed into the hub for processing, with any detected threats or approaching risks flagged to partner nations.
