Two merchant ships hit by drones off Bulgaria; one sinks, crew missing
One vessel sank and its crew are listed as missing after drones struck two merchant ships about 150 km east of Byala.
On October 6, 2026, two merchant vessels were struck by drone attacks in the Black Sea off the Bulgarian coast, authorities reported. One of the ships sank and its crew are listed as missing, while the other was damaged and its crew rescued.
Rescue operation and government response
Rumen Nikolov, head of the Center for Maritime Rescue in Varna, told Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) that the crew of the sunken vessel are considered missing. He said the rescue operation unfolded roughly 150 kilometres east of the coastal town of Byala.
The Bulgarian government of prime minister Rumen Radev announced it would immediately convene a crisis session following the incident. Local reports said one ship flying the flag of Togo suffered heavy damage before sinking, while a Palau-flagged vessel caught fire.
According to the same information, the 18 members of the crew of the Palau-flagged ship were transferred to safety by a Bulgarian ferry. The crew of the second vessel was reported to have been rescued.
The attack comes a day after a drone strike on a Turkish cargo vessel near Romania's coast that left two crew members dead; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed two Russian unmanned aerial vehicles for that attack.
Because of the war in Ukraine, the Black Sea has become an increasingly frequent site of drone-related incidents. The Turkish Chamber of Shipping reports that, since the start of the war, 226 civilian and merchant ships have been attacked in the Black Sea, most of those attacks recorded this year.
Photo: press material from the event
