Two merchant vessels came under drone attack about 150 kilometers off the Bulgarian town of Byala — one of them sank, and its crew is presumed missing. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced the drone strike on his Facebook profile, according to infohub.kz.
Distress signals came from both ships — the Able, sailing under the flag of Palau, and the Alfa Watan, under the flag of Togo, local media reported. The Able's 18-member crew was rescued by a Bulgarian cargo-passenger ship that happened to be nearby. The crew members are known to have been citizens of Turkey and India, two of whom were injured. They received medical assistance and were taken to a military hospital in Varna.
Prime Minister Radev convened an emergency meeting with representatives of the Defense Ministry, security services and other agencies over the incident. In a statement published before the meeting began, the politician called the incident "an absolutely unacceptable attack in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone" and "a completely flagrant violation of maritime law and shipping norms."
The politician said the surviving vessel was carrying wheat and heading south, while the cargo of the sunken ship, which was sailing north, has not been established.
According to RBC-Ukraine, Bulgaria will not invoke NATO Articles 4 and 5 over the shelling of ships in the Black Sea. This was stated by the country's prime minister, Rumen Radev, who believes there are no grounds for it yet. "We will keep trying to establish where they came from, but it is obvious that they are either Russian or Ukrainian drones," the politician said.