Eleven crew members remained missing Tuesday after drone strikes sank two ships in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone and adjacent waters. Five others were rescued. Bulgaria says Russia likely carried out attacks on four ships in the Black Sea over the past week, but Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the state can’t prove Moscow’s responsibility.
“There is no logic in Ukraine attacking its own ships and crews, given that the outcome of all these attacks favors Russia — and indeed, the logic points in that direction. The problem is that we cannot prove it,” Radev told Parliament. The ships’ crews face the immediate cost, while governments still haven’t settled who bears responsibility.
The crews in the water
The vessels that sank were the Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship Dignity and the Chelsea-3, Ukrainian-owned, registered in Odesa and sailing under Malta’s flag. A military strike hit the Dignity before it sank Tuesday.
Four Dignity sailors — three Syrian nationals and one Egyptian — reached the port of Varna after rescue, district Gov. Mario Smarkov said. “All four appeared to be in relatively good condition and had sustained no injuries,” he said. A fifth sailor was expected to arrive later on Wednesday. Smarkov said rescuers continued searching for the 11 missing crew members.
The rescue effort continues. The available account offers no sign of a community-run response or mutual-aid effort; it describes rescues and state requests for outside support. Those missing sailors remain the starkest measure of what the attacks mean beyond the governments’ arguments.
States trade claims; NATO gets the call
Radev summoned Russia’s ambassador to Sofia on Tuesday. She said she had no information from the Russian defense ministry and didn’t rule out the possibility that “these attacks represent a provocation by a third party.” Bulgaria’s prime minister points toward Russia, while the Russian ambassador leaves another explanation open. Neither account settles who carried out the strikes.
Bulgaria requested international help to investigate attacks on commercial vessels. It also asked NATO to help strengthen surveillance and control systems, along with response capabilities against drone attacks. The request places the state and military alliance at the center of Bulgaria’s proposed response; the account gives no details of a grassroots investigation or locally organized defense.
President Iliana Yotova called for hostilities in the Black Sea to stop immediately and for a moratorium on drone attacks against commercial and civilian infrastructure. “The unprecedented attacks demonstrate that the war has reached the Black Sea and that the conflict is intensifying,” Yotova said in a television interview on Tuesday.
Yotova said she and her colleagues from Romania and Turkey had taken coordinated steps in response to growing risks and dangers in the Black Sea basin. “The aim is a moratorium on the use of drones over the Black Sea against commercial and civilian infrastructure and to halt hostilities over the sea,” she said. The proposed response is a state-to-state moratorium and stronger surveillance, while the search for the 11 missing crew members continues. The article describes no electoral or legislative remedy, and no NGO or nonprofit aid effort.