Prime Minister Rumen Radev said two ships were hit in Bulgaria's Black Sea zone. One grain ship was rescued with two injured; a Togo-flagged ship sank and its crew was missing.
The crew of a merchant ship was missing on Tuesday after the vessel sank in the Black Sea off Bulgaria following a drone strike that Prime Minister Rumen Radev called a gross violation of international law.
Radev said two ships were hit. The crew of one, carrying grain, was rescued, with two people injured. The ship that sank was Togo-flagged and its cargo was not disclosed. Maritime risk group Vanguard identified the vessels as the Togo-flagged ALFA WATAN and the Palau-flagged ABLE, both in Bulgaria's economic zone.
Moscow had made no comment on the incident in the Reuters account. The strike followed a separate fire on a ship outside Romania's territorial waters in which Romanian authorities said two people died. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed Russian drones for the Romania incident. Romanian authorities confirmed the fire, sinking and deaths but did not initially attribute the cause.
Vanguard said the apparent spread of incidents into the exclusive economic zones of NATO members Romania and Bulgaria was a particular concern. Reuters did not report a NATO military response on Tuesday.
Search details for the missing crew were not published beyond Radev's statement that they were missing. No insurer or flag-state casualty update was included in the reports reviewed.
People Sentiments Negative
- Rumen Radev condemned the strike as a gross violation of international law.