Officials in Sofia announced on Wednesday that drone strikes targeting commercial vessels off the country's Black Sea coastline were believed to originate from Russia, as authorities simultaneously stood down a rescue operation for 11 crew members unaccounted for after one of the stricken ships went under.
Deteriorating weather forced an end to the hunt for 11 missing crew from the Guinea-Bissau-registered vessel HS Dignity on Wednesday afternoon, with Bulgaria's Transport Ministry announcing that conditions had rendered any continuation of the operation unsafe. Around 3 p.m. local time, a combination of strong winds, rough water, and poor visibility forced Wednesday's resumed search-and-rescue operation to stand down. No additional survivors were found, officials said.
About 17 nautical miles off Bulgaria's northeastern coast near the Romanian border, the ship went down on Tuesday after an attack attributed to a drone. Of the five sailors brought to safety, those still unaccounted for were understood to hold Syrian and Egyptian nationality.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev told journalists that the pattern of strikes — four ships hit over the course of a single week, two of them sunk and 21 crew members still unaccounted for, including 11 from the vessel lost on Tuesday — aligned with Russian interests, in his assessment. Radev described the strikes on civilian vessels near Bulgarian territorial waters as unacceptable, adding that the pattern of incidents pointed to a broadening geographic footprint of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. While he stopped short of formally assigning blame — noting the absence of firm, conclusive evidence against any named party — he observed that the circumstances, taken together, appeared to favour one side over others. No definitive proof pointing to those responsible had been gathered by the time investigators reviewed the case.
Facing a diplomatic incident, Bulgaria's head of state called in Russian envoy Eleonora Mitrofanova for talks while turning to both NATO and the European Union for support in carrying out an investigation. No briefing from the defence ministry on attacks against commercial vessels in the Black Sea had reached Mitrofanova, who added that an outside party may have carried out the incidents.
Those incidents have prompted unease across both NATO and the European Union — two overlapping alliances that include Bulgaria as a member state — over the vulnerability of commercial vessels operating in waters close to allied territory. The European Commission issued a statement characterising Black Sea activity as a further zone of heightened tension tied to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
On X, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the Black Sea as having drawn into the wider conflict surrounding Ukraine, pressing for those responsible for the incidents to be held to account. Separately, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke with Radev by telephone, conveying that the alliance had already strengthened its presence along the eastern flank and stood ready to continue adjusting its deterrence and defence arrangements as the situation in the region evolved.
In remarks attributed to Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, strikes on maritime traffic were described as placing civilian populations at risk and undermining the stability of global food supplies.
Among the vessels struck in the round of attacks was the Chelsea 3, a Ukrainian-owned ship registered under Malta's flag — a country that holds membership in the European Union. Three aerial drones hit the ship off the Bulgarian coast near Byala on Tuesday, according to available reports. All 15 people aboard were brought out unharmed by rescue teams — a group that included seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis — with five of them treated for minor injuries, according to Bulgarian authorities.
Seven days prior, drone strikes on two other vessels navigating Bulgaria's Black Sea waters sent the Alfa Watan to the seabed and left ten crew members unaccounted for. Ten people — nine from Syria and one from Egypt — were unaccounted for after that vessel went down, while all hands aboard a separate stricken ship were brought to safety.
Meetings between Bulgarian Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov and his counterparts from Romania and Turkey addressed an evolving security picture, with Sofia pressing both nations for help tracing the origin of the drones and bolstering monitoring capabilities. Stoyanov announced Wednesday that Bulgaria intends to join a NATO counter-drone programme before October draws to a close, part of a broader effort to bolster protections for merchant vessels and infrastructure across the Black Sea.
Cargo vessels navigating the Black Sea have faced a growing pattern of disruptions tied to the armed conflict that took hold after Russia launched a full-scale military offensive against Ukraine in February 2022. Port infrastructure along Ukraine's coastline has been a repeated target of Russian strikes, while Ukrainian forces have conducted their own operations against Russian naval vessels and ships tied to Moscow's military and energy supply lines. Grain shipments and other agricultural commodities flow out of both nations through the Black Sea, a waterway that serves as a trade artery connecting their export markets to buyers around the world.
Questions about who bears responsibility for the strikes remain open, while the halted rescue effort has left shipping operators and the crews aboard vessels near NATO member-state waters uncertain about whether further incidents may follow.
