Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev has summoned the Russian ambassador after two merchant ships were struck by drones off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast and one of them sank.
Six crew members on the Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity were rescued and 10 others are missing, according to Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov, after it went down 17 nautical miles (31km) east of the village of Krapets having sent a distress signal.
The other ship, the Ukrainian owned Chelsea-3, was hit by drones 18 nautical miles from the town of Byala and all 15 crew were rescued.
The attacks come a week after two other commercial ships were hit by sea and aerial drones in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone.
One of the ships, the Alfa Watan, sank and all 10 crew, including nine Syrians, are presumed dead.
Radev convened an emergency meeting on Tuesday and said he had summoned Russian envoy Eleonora Mitrofanova. Although there was no conclusive evidence of blame on “either side… the logic suggests that the outcome benefits the Russian Federation”, he said.
Mitrofanova was later quoted by Bulgarian media as telling Radev she had no information from Russia’s defence ministry relating to the latest attacks. She also said these strikes could have been a provocation by a third party.
Bulgaria is a Nato member, and Radev also spoke to secretary general Mark Rutte about the latest attacks. The Dignity and Chelsea-3 were struck just outside Bulgarian territorial waters, in its Black Sea “exclusive economic zone”.
If this had happened just a few nautical miles to the west, Article 5 of the Nato treaty could have been triggered. The article defines an armed attack on one member of the military alliance as an attack on all.
Credit: bbc.com
