Bulgarian authorities have ended search operations after confirming no survivors were found following a drone strike that sank a ship off the country’s coast. Drones hit two commercial vessels early on Tuesday as attacks on Black Sea shipping increase amid an intensifying Russia-Ukraine war. One caught fire, and the other sank.
The search stopped late on Tuesday and would not continue, he added. Eighteen Turkish and Indian crew members were rescued from the ship that caught fire, but the crew members from the vessel that sank remain missing. Authorities have not said how many people are missing, but according to the Maritime.bg specialised website, 10 people were on board the ship.
Nikolov said the incident occurred in a so-called “responsible search and rescue zone” and not in the country’s territorial waters, which extend to 12 nautical miles off the coast. Asked whether any debris from the drones had been recovered, Nikolov said: “I have no information about drone debris.” Prime Minister Rumen Radev has described the attack as “absolutely unacceptable”. European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen has also condemned the incident.
Bulgarian authorities have said they are not yet able to determine the origin of the drones. A distress beacon signal from the ship that sank was received at 2:54am on Tuesday ( on Monday), while the distress signal from the other ship was received at 3:23am ( ), Nikolov said. Both commercial ships were managed by Turkiye-based companies, according to the Equasis merchant shipping database.
They were hit about 80 nautical miles (150km) east of the Bulgarian coastal town of Byala. The strikes came a day after another ship caught fire and sank off the Romanian coast on Monday, killing two people. Ukraine blamed Russia for the drone attack.
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