Drone Strikes Sink One Cargo Ship and Damage Another Off Bulgaria
The attacks marked the second assault on merchant shipping near the European Union member in one week and prompted calls for North Atlantic Treaty Organization assistance.
Aerial drones struck two commercial cargo ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast overnight on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, sinking one vessel and damaging another. The attacks took place between 17 and 18 nautical miles off the coast, just outside Bulgaria's territorial waters.
Three aerial drones hit the Maltese-flagged cargo ship Chelsea 3 roughly 18 nautical miles off the town of Byala. Bulgarian emergency rescue services evacuated all 15 crew members to the port of Varna. Five sailors received treatment for minor injuries.
The Chelsea 3 is registered in Odesa and owned by a Ukrainian company. Its crew included seven Ukrainian citizens and eight Azerbaijani citizens.
The second cargo vessel sank after a strike roughly 17 nautical miles east of the village of Krapets. Rescuers pulled five crew members from the water, while 11 sailors remained missing. Bulgarian media identified the sunken ship as the Azov Concord. Turkish-based managers of the vessel did not immediately comment.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev called the strikes absolutely unacceptable during an emergency meeting of the country's Security Council. Radev acknowledged that authorities lacked direct forensic evidence of who launched the drones. However, he stated that logic indicated the outcome worked in favor of Russia.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha directly attributed the strikes to Russia. Sybiha said targeting merchant ships near Bulgarian waters showed Moscow's deliberate disregard for civilian lives and maritime safety. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the attacks and said the Black Sea had become another front of escalation in the war.
The incident marked the second series of strikes on merchant shipping near Bulgaria within a week. On Oct. 6, drone strikes sank the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and damaged the Palau-flagged Able roughly 70 nautical miles off the coast. A Bulgarian ferry rescued 18 sailors from the Able, but rescuers found no crew from the Alfa Watan.
On Oct. 5, another merchant vessel, the Royad Mammadov, caught fire and sank in Romania's exclusive economic zone, leaving two crew dead. Ukraine established its own maritime export corridor in August 2023 after Russia exited the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Bulgaria summoned the Russian ambassador to Sofia on Tuesday to address the strikes. The government also asked its representatives to NATO and the European Union to request international assistance with surveillance and airspace defense.
Radev scheduled consultations with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to discuss security threats in the western Black Sea. Meanwhile, Bulgarian maritime rescue teams continued search operations off Krapets for the 11 missing crew members.
