Two tankers burn off Romania, 7 sailors missing

Seven crew members were missing Thursday after a fire on the San Marino-flagged tanker Wine Trader off Romania’s Black Sea coast, Romanian authorities said, a day after a second tanker burned in the same area.

Updated Oct. 15, 2026, 7:40 a.m. ET. This story is developing and the cause of both fires has not been confirmed.

It is the latest in a string of attacks on ships near Romanian and Bulgarian waters since Oct. 6, and it pushed the Black Sea onto the agenda of the European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Oct. 15.

The Romanian Naval Authority said the fire on the Wine Trader was reported around 7 a.m., about 13 nautical miles southeast of Sulina, where the Danube’s Sulina channel reaches the sea, according to Euronews. Eight crew were first reported missing. The authority later said five had been rescued and “a further seven people are still missing,” Euronews reported. A ship and a helicopter were searching.

Defence Minister Radu Miruta did not say what started the fire. “Whether it was struck by a drone or not, an investigation is currently underway,” Miruta told the Romanian broadcaster Digi24, as reported by Euronews. He called it a matter of “significant gravity” because the incidents are happening in Romanian territorial waters.

The Comoros-flagged tanker Yara J caught fire a day earlier, on Oct. 14, near the same Sulina canal mouth. Euronews reported that its crew put the fire out themselves, and ABC News reported that all of its crew were safe. Al Jazeera, in a report carried from Reuters, said Romanian authorities were also examining whether drones were involved in that fire and that several drones entered Romanian airspace near the Ukrainian border the same day. Reports differ on which vessel the seven missing sailors belong to, and the details above come from Romanian officials quoted by Euronews.

The fires follow drone strikes in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone on Oct. 6 and Oct. 13, as we reported on Oct. 14. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said in Brussels on Oct. 15 that four ships were hit in those two attacks and two sank, according to the Sofia Globe. ABC reported that at least 23 sailors have died in the attacks on at least five ships near the Romanian and Bulgarian coasts over the past 10 days, a toll we could not confirm independently.

Radev asked EU partners on Thursday to back a moratorium on attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea. “This unacceptable aggression against civilian vessels has to stop,” he said, according to EUalive. “I expect solidarity from our partners for the adoption of the moratorium we propose.” The Sofia Globe reported that Radev said a call to stop such attacks is already in the draft summit conclusions, a claim we have not verified against the Council text.

Nobody has been named as the attacker. Radev said there is not yet evidence identifying the responsible country, and he described Bulgaria’s view that Russia is behind the strikes as a hypothesis, not a proven fact. Russia’s ambassador in Sofia, summoned on Oct. 13, did not rule out “a provocation by a third party,” Euronews reported. Ukraine blamed Russian drones for an earlier grain ship sinking in early October, according to Al Jazeera. Russia has not been reported to have commented on the Romanian fires.

Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Toiu, speaking at a security conference in Warsaw, called the Black Sea “the deadliest sea when it comes to the number of casualties of sailors in the last months,” ABC reported. Turkish shipping chamber IMEAK counted at least 163 civilian and commercial vessels hit in the Black Sea in the first eight months of 2026, Euronews reported.

For Canada, the link is Romania. In a July 5 news release, Global Affairs Canada said Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand would reaffirm Canada’s commitment to Black Sea security on a trip to Bucharest, and that the Royal Canadian Navy would take part in a joint demining operation on Romania’s Black Sea coast to clear drifting mines and maritime drones. We found no Canadian government statement on the latest fires. Canadians planning travel to the region can check current advisories at travel.gc.ca.

The EU summit continues Friday. Radev planned to present a joint Bulgarian-Romanian proposal, open to Türkiye, to the European Council, with President Nicusor Dan of Romania, according to EUalive. Romania’s investigation into the Wine Trader fire is continuing.

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