Drones sink cargo ship off Bulgaria, 11 sailors missing

Drones struck two cargo ships off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast early on Oct. 13, sinking the Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity and leaving 11 crew missing, Bulgarian officials said.

It was the second attack on commercial shipping in Bulgaria’s waters in a week. Bulgaria, a NATO and European Union member, has not said who launched the drones, but Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the outcome “benefits” Russia, Al Jazeera reported.

The Ukrainian-owned, Maltese-flagged Chelsea 3 was hit by three drones about 18 nautical miles (33 km) off the town of Byala at around 1:30 a.m. local time, according to Helsinki Times. The ship was travelling from Turkey to Moldova and was damaged but did not sink. All 15 crew, seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis, were rescued and taken to Varna, and five were treated for minor injuries.

The HS Dignity sank about 31 km east of the village of Krapets, near the Romanian border. Reuters reported five crew rescued and 11 missing, as relayed by Helsinki Times, and Al Jazeera gave the same figures. Al Jazeera noted that a linked story said 10 crew were unaccounted for, and neither outlet gave the ship’s total crew. The search was continuing on Tuesday, and the figures are preliminary.

Radev called an emergency meeting of security officials and said in a televised address that the attack was “absolutely unacceptable” and “another attack in the immediate vicinity of Bulgarian territorial waters.” He said there was no clear evidence of who was responsible. Bulgaria summoned Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova, who said she had no information from Russia’s Defence Ministry about attacks on commercial ships and raised the possibility that a third party staged the incidents, Helsinki Times reported. Bulgaria also asked NATO and the EU for help with maritime monitoring, airspace surveillance and investigations.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X that “the Black Sea has become another front of escalation of the Russian war in Ukraine,” and said those responsible should be held accountable. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance would adjust its defences “as needed” and had already strengthened its posture on the eastern flank. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Moscow of targeting civilian shipping, calling the Black Sea “a lifeline for global food security,” according to Helsinki Times. These claims could not be independently verified.

The attack follows one a week earlier. At about 3 a.m. on Oct. 6, drones hit the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and the Palau-flagged Able about 70 nautical miles (130 km) off Bulgaria’s coast, in its exclusive economic zone, Al Jazeera reported. The Alfa Watan sank. Helsinki Times said 10 sailors, nine Syrians and one Egyptian, were missing and presumed dead. All 18 crew of the Able were evacuated, and two were seriously injured.

Russia and Ukraine have increasingly targeted ships since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, affecting grain and other trade routes near Bulgaria and Romania, Helsinki Times reported. Last week, Zelenskyy said Russian drones also hit a civilian vessel off Romania, according to Al Jazeera. That claim is Ukraine’s and was not independently confirmed in the sources we read.

For Canadians, the connection is indirect. Canada has troops in Latvia as part of NATO’s eastern flank, which Rutte said the alliance has already strengthened. We found no statement from the Canadian government on the Bulgarian attacks in the reporting we read. Canadians travelling in the region can check advisories at travel.gc.ca. Our related coverage includes Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid.

What happens next depends on the investigation. Bulgaria has asked its allies for help establishing who launched the drones, and the European Council summit that opens Oct. 15 is expected to take up Ukraine, as we reported earlier.

Updated Oct. 15, 2026. This story is developing. Crew numbers differ between reports, and Bulgarian authorities have not identified who launched the drones.

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Via Al Jazeera, Helsinki Times (citing Reuters) and Euronews.