Before the incident off the coast of Bulgaria, authorities in Sofia had reported drone attacks on commercial vessels in the exclusive economic zone. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced that two vessels had been hit on Tuesday night into Wednesday, near Byala: the cargo ship „Chelsea 3” (flying the Maltese flag) and a second vessel, „Able”, in other areas, with reports of injuries and, in one of the cases, the vessel sinking.
Prior to these episodes, Bulgaria had convened consultations and requested support from NATO allies after the cargo ship „Alfa Watan” (flying the Togolese flag) was hit and sank, while the vessel „Able” caught fire; the authorities had not yet established the origin of the drones. In parallel, similar attacks were also reported near Romania: a vessel carrying Ukrainian grain sank in the exclusive economic zone, in an incident Ukraine attributed to Russia.
During the same period, Turkey condemned attacks on Turkish commercial vessels sailing under foreign flags after two ships were hit in the Black Sea following their departure from Novorossiysk, and the Foreign Ministry in Ankara warned that such episodes escalate the risks to civilian maritime transport.
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