Prime Minister Rumen Radev convened an emergency meeting of the Security Council after a fresh wave of drone strikes hit two commercial cargo ships on two locations near the Bulgarian coastline overnight into Tuesday, leaving one damaged and causing another to sink.
He also summoned Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova, and scheduled urgent discussions with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
“We don’t have solid evidence to blame either side [Ukraine or Russia] but the logic points that the strikes have been of benefit to the Russian Federation,” Radev said on Tuesday morning.
Radev previously downplayed Russia’s role when another two ships were targeted in the Black Sea on October 6.
During his presidential terms and now in his first mandate as Prime Minister, Radev has kept up a balancing act, often resisting criticism of the Kremlin and expressing scepticism about Ukraine.
The workers on the damaged ship near the town of Byala – the Malta-flagged, Odesa-registered Chelsea 3 – have been evacuated and some are being treated in the city of Varna. Seven Ukrainian citizens and eight Azerbaijanis were on board. The vessel was travelling from the Turkish port of Giresun to Giurgiuleșsti in Romania.
There is less information about the sunken ship, which was located near Krapets. Radev confirmed that one sailor managed to survive. According to further reports, there were five survivors and 11 more are missing.
The two ships were located 17 and 18 miles from the coast, closer to the shore than the first ships that were targeted.
One of the survivors from the Chelsea 3 said the drone attack came from Russia, speaking when surrounded by local journalists in Varna.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, warned on Tuesday that the Black Sea “has become another front of escalation of the Russian war in Ukraine” and called the attack “unacceptable”.
“I strongly condemn the drone attacks on merchant ships near Bulgaria’s coast. Putting the lives of the crew in grave danger and threatening security in the Black Sea. We stand with Bulgaria and thank its rescuers for their swift response,” von der Leyen said on X.
The previous attack a week ago occurred in a similar part of Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea, in the north-east, and with almost identical results – one ship was damaged and another was sunk. Both Ukraine and Russia denied involvement.
On October 12, Bulgaria’s Ministry of Defence confirmed that rescue operations over the first attack have been halted and no further operations are planned, leaving many unanswered details around the sunken ship on which at least ten sailors died.
While authorities said one of the two ships on October 6 was carrying Ukrainian cargo, its nature remains unconfirmed, although speculation points to grain.
On October 12, opposition MP Ivaylo Mirchev, of Democratic Bulgaria, alleged another instance of Russian interference, claiming unknown masked perpetrators had damaged Space-X antennas near Sofia to disrupt Starlink connections to Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Democratic Bulgaria called on Bulgaria’s national security directors to address parliament, in which Radev’s MPs have a majority, over the recent threats.