Drone Attacks on the Black Sea: 21 Sailors Missing, Bulgaria Considers Turning to NATO

Bulgaria is turning to the UN Security Council and is also considering invoking allied consultations under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, after what were likely Russian drones attacked two merchant ships near the Bulgarian coast on Monday night into Tuesday, one of which sank. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev — actually President Iliana Yotova — said on Wednesday in an interview with Nova TV that Sofia is also requesting that Black Sea security be added as an extraordinary agenda item at the European Council's summit in Brussels, which begins on Thursday, October 15.

According to Yotova, the Black Sea must be discussed as a separate issue, not merely in the general context of the war, and the European Union is expected to adopt an appropriate stance and recommendations. In the president's view, invoking Article 4 requires careful consideration, and it would carry more weight if several countries initiated it jointly. Under Article 4 of the treaty, member states consult one another whenever any of them considers its territorial integrity, political independence or security to be threatened. Romanian President Nicușor Dan will speak by phone with Yotova on Wednesday afternoon about the attacks on the ships and the security of maritime shipping, the Romanian presidential office announced.

The attack hit the ships Chelsea 3 and HS Dignity. The HS Dignity cargo ship, sailing under the flag of Guinea-Bissau, was heading for the Romanian port of Brăila, according to ship-tracking websites, when it sank near Krapets. According to Bulgarian authorities, five sailors were rescued, but eleven remain missing, and the search is continuing. The Malta-flagged Chelsea 3 was hit by three drones, according to Bulgarian authorities; its fifteen-member crew — seven Ukrainian and eight Azerbaijani sailors — were all rescued, and no one suffered serious injuries. The ship was heading for the port of Giurgiulești in the Republic of Moldova, which Romania recently purchased. One of Chelsea 3's sailors told Bulgaria's public broadcaster BNT that a Russian drone hit the ship three times.

This is already the second such incident within a week: a week earlier, another cargo ship sank in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone after being hit by drones. Nine Syrian sailors and one Egyptian sailor have been missing ever since, and another ship was attacked the same night, though its crew was rescued. Over the two weeks, a total of twenty-one sailors have thus gone missing as a result of the various drone strikes.

While Sofia has not openly accused Russia, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev called it on television "completely unacceptable" that another attack had occurred in the immediate vicinity of Bulgarian territorial waters, and stated that the outcome of the attacks serves the interests of the Russian Federation. The Bulgarian government summoned the Russian ambassador — Eleonora Mitrofanova said she had no information from the Russian defense ministry about the attacks on the merchant ships, but did not rule out that it could be a provocation by a third party. Moscow is thus following the same pattern as with the drones entering Romanian and Polish airspace and the sabotage operations across Europe: denying involvement and shifting the blame onto others. The targets of the attacks were once again ships sailing routes along the Danube connected to Ukraine. Since 2022, Russia has systematically bombed Ukrainian Black Sea ports, forcing Ukraine to rely increasingly on Danube ports and on sea routes passing close to the Bulgarian and Romanian coasts.

The attacks were condemned by both the European Union and Ukraine. According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Black Sea has become a new front in Russia's escalation of the war, and those responsible must be held accountable. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the attack once again showed that Moscow deliberately disregards civilian lives and is attacking the Black Sea — vital to global food security — in order to weaponize hunger. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said, after a phone call with Radev, that the alliance has already reinforced its presence on the eastern flank and will continue to adjust its deterrence and defense strategy "as needed." Radev requested support from both von der Leyen and Rutte to strengthen Bulgaria's maritime and airspace surveillance, while Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov held talks on Tuesday with Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miruță and Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, since the attacks on merchant ships constitute a serious violation of international maritime law and require a coordinated allied response.

Western reactions, however, remain confined to statements, while people are dying near the coasts of NATO member states on the Black Sea. NATO's secretary general speaks of "adapting as needed," while Article 4 — which only mandates consultation, not any military obligation — is still merely under consideration in Sofia, and Bulgaria has so far not even named the attacker. Romania, too, failed to invoke this mechanism in May, when a Russian drone struck a residential building in Galați, even though Nicușor Dan called it at the time the country's most serious incident since the outbreak of the war. After four and a half years, Moscow is thus still finding that its attacks on or near the territory of the alliance carry no meaningful consequences. On the western shores of the Black Sea, the safety of ships, sailors and ports now depends on whether Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey are capable of doing more than merely holding consultations.

Ugar