Ship sinks and crew missing after Black Sea drone attack
A civilian cargo vessel sank in the Black Sea after being struck by drones early Thursday morning, leaving its crew missing. The ship, the Turkish‑owned Alfa Watan flying under the flag of Togo, was attacked about 70 miles (112 km) off the Bulgarian coastal town of Byala at roughly 03:00 local time (23:00 GMT). Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said a nearby Bulgarian boat arrived to find the Alfa Watan overturned, surrounded by life jackets and rafts, and that a search operation had been launched. A second vessel, the grain‑carrying Able, was also hit within Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone; its 18‑person crew—eleven Turks and seven Indians—were rescued, two of them after a fire broke out on board. The Able, flagged to Palau, was last reported five nautical miles (9 km) from the Alfa Watan when the attack occurred.
The incidents come amid a marked escalation of drone strikes in the Black Sea, which Bulgarian officials link to Russia’s intensified campaign against Ukraine, though Moscow has not commented and no party has been formally blamed. The attacks follow a recent Ukrainian accusation that Russia targeted a civilian corn‑carrying vessel, and they coincide with a broader Russian pledge to increase strikes across Ukraine in response to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s remarks about targeting Russian oil refineries. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the attacks as “unacceptable” and warned that commercial ships and their crews were being deliberately targeted, heightening concerns about the conflict’s spillover into international waters.
Radev condemned the drone strikes as a “flagrant violation of maritime law” and warned that the war’s geographic reach could expand further if not halted, potentially raising the risk of a wider global confrontation. The sinking of the Alfa Watan adds to a series of recent Black Sea incidents, including a separate attack near Odesa that killed one crew member and injured seven on a Marshall Islands‑flagged ship. Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, covering just over 29,000 sq km, has become a focal point for these confrontations, underscoring the growing vulnerability of civilian maritime traffic in the region.
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