Drones Attack Two Vessels off Bulgaria’s Coast, Including a Ukrainian Ship

Drones attacked two merchant vessels in the Black Sea off the Bulgarian coast.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev reported this on Facebook.

One vessel sank, while the other, the Ukrainian-owned cargo ship Chelsea 3, was damaged.

At around 01:30, the rescue coordination center in Varna received a report of an attack on a vessel located 33 km east of the town of Byala.

According to Radev, the Chelsea 3 crew reported that three drones struck the vessel’s deck and hull. The Chelsea 3 sails under the Maltese flag.

The crew included 15 members: seven Ukrainian and eight Azerbaijani nationals. Bulgarian border guards rescued the entire crew and brought them to Varna port.

According to the MarineTraffic vessel-tracking service, the Chelsea 3, which a Ukrainian company owns, was en route from the Turkish port of Giresun to the port of Giurgiulești in Moldova.

During an emergency meeting of the Security Council under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria, officials also received a report about a second vessel that had been attacked and sank 17 nautical miles east of Cape Shabla. Rescuers found one crew member. The report did not provide information on the fate of the remaining sailors.

Bulgaria has requested technical assistance from the European Union and NATO to investigate the attacks and strengthen air and maritime surveillance. Radev stressed the need to enhance the country’s ability to respond to similar incidents.

This is not the first drone attack on civilian vessels in the Black Sea near Bulgaria. On October 6, 2026, aerial and naval drones attacked two merchant vessels in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone.

Two vessels came under attack at the time. The first was ALFA WATAN (IMO 7510884), sailing under the flag of Togo and en route from the Egyptian port of Al Arish to the Romanian port of Sulina. The other vessel targeted was ABLE (IMO 9001136), sailing under the flag of Palau and traveling from the Romanian city of Galați to Istanbul, Türkiye.

That same day, after clarifying details with the Bulgarian side and maintaining contact between the Ukrainian and Bulgarian navies, the Ukrainian side concluded that the attack was a combined Russian operation.