The first strike came around 1.30 a.m. on Tuesday, roughly 18 nautical miles off the Bulgarian town of Byala. The Chelsea 3, a Ukrainian-owned cargo ship flying the Maltese flag, was sailing from Giresun in Turkey to the Moldovan river port of Giurgiulesti. Its 15 Ukrainian and Azerbaijani crew reported three aerial drones. The ship stayed afloat.
The second ship was not so lucky. The HS Dignity, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged vessel heading from Algeria to the Romanian port of Braila, was hit about 17 miles off the village of Krapets and sank. Five sailors were pulled from the water. Bulgarian public radio, citing the regional governor of Dobrich, reported that 11 are missing. Three people were taken to the maritime hospital in Varna.
Last week the Alfa Watan sank inside Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone with all crew presumed dead, and a ship carrying corn was hit in Romania's zone. The attacks are getting more frequent, and they are creeping closer to NATO and EU shores.
Until now the Bulgarian government declined to name a culprit, citing a lack of evidence. That changed on Tuesday. The office of Prime Minister Rumen Radev said Ukraine has no logical reason to destroy its own ships and that Russia is the main beneficiary. Sofia asked to meet Russia's ambassador, Eleonora Mitrofanova. She said she had no information from her defence ministry about the latest strikes and did not rule out that a third country was provoking incidents.
The costs are already visible. Bulgaria points to higher insurance premiums and carriers that now refuse to call at its ports. President Iliana Yotova warned last week that the Black Sea is turning into a military zone. The defence ministers of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey spoke by phone on Monday. The three already run a joint mine-clearing programme and plan to extend it to protect undersea infrastructure.
Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova used Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg to ask for a moratorium on attacks on merchant shipping in the Black Sea. She argued the issue concerns "everyone in the EU" and pointed to the maritime security centre Bulgaria is developing with Romania under the EU's 2025 Black Sea strategy.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the strikes, saying they put crews' lives in grave danger. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke to Radev and said the alliance has strengthened its eastern-flank posture and will adjust its deterrence as needed. Bulgaria wants NATO and EU help to investigate last week's incidents.
The western Black Sea carries much of Ukraine's grain exports, and it runs along the coasts of three NATO members. Until now these attacks looked like a shipping risk. A sunk ship, eleven missing sailors and a government that has stopped hedging turn them into a security problem for the whole bloc.
Expect Bulgaria to press for a formal EU and NATO investigation, and expect insurers to price in the danger whatever it finds. One caveat matters: nobody has publicly shown who launched the drones, and Moscow has not accepted responsibility. The test now is whether Brussels can turn Sofia's request for a moratorium into anything more than a statement.
