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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Bulgaria has requested NATO help as it investigates the latest in a series of drone attacks on commercial shipping close to its Black Sea shoreline, which looks out onto a major battleground for Russian and Ukrainian unmanned vehicles.
Drones struck two cargo ships near the NATO member's coastline overnight, sinking one vessel, officials said on Tuesday.
Officials said six crew members were rescued from the Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity, which sank about 17 miles east of Krapets, a village near Bulgaria's border with Romania. Another 10 people are thought to be still missing.
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Another ship, identified as the Maltese-flagged Chelsea-3, broadcast a distress signal at 1:30 a.m. local time roughly 18 miles east of the seaside town of Byala, south of Krapets, officials said.
Bulgarian lawmakers said the ship is owned by Ukraine and was carrying seven Ukrainian citizens and eight Azerbaijani nationals.
Tracking data shows the Chelsea-3 left the northeastern Turkish city of Giresun on Saturday, bound for Moldova's Giurgiulești port. The HS Dignity departed from Algeria on October 5 and was scheduled to arrive in Romania on Thursday. All crew members were rescued, and three drones were found either on the deck or onboard the Chelsea-3, authorities in Sofia said. Five crew members received medical treatment.
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The incidents come roughly a week after two merchant ships were attacked by aerial and seaborne drones in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, one day after another drone attack sank a cargo vessel.
"The repeated attacks on commercial vessels in the immediate vicinity of Bulgaria’s territorial waters are wholly unacceptable," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova said on Tuesday.
Moscow and Ukraine have attacked one another's grain and agricultural sites in and around the Black Sea, raising fears about food supplies far beyond the region because both countries are major grain exporters.
Experts say Russia increased its strikes on grain-carrying ships around Ukrainian ports throughout the summer of 2026. Most of Ukraine's grain exports leave the country through ports in the southern Odesa region. Ukraine, meanwhile, bombarded Russia's Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk in mid-August, forcing Russia to redirect its grain exports. Roughly 40 percent of Russia's grain exports pass through Novorossiysk.
Both countries regularly use drones to carry out their assaults.
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of carrying out the attack and said Moscow had a "deliberate disregard for civilian lives and maritime security in the Black Sea."
"We urge our partners to step up pressure on Russia, strengthen sanctions, and take decisive action to hold it accountable and protect freedom of navigation," the Ukrainian diplomat said.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev did not explicitly blame Moscow but said the incident "benefits the Russian Federation" and announced he would summon the Russian ambassador to Sofia.
Eleonora Mitrofanova, the Russian envoy to Bulgaria, said she had no information about Russian involvement.
Petrova said Bulgarian officials were "in constant contact" with the rest of the alliance and the European Union. NATO chief Mark Rutte said he had spoken with Radev.
Bulgaria will deploy two extra drone systems and additional missile systems to the Black Sea area, the country's defense minister, Dimitar Stoyanov, said on Tuesday, according to Bulgaria's BTA national news agency.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and Sam Wilson.
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