Cargo ship sinks and grain vessel is hit in Black Sea drone attacks

Rescuers approaching a stricken cargo ship in the Black Sea found an overturned boat, rafts and life jackets, but its crew remained missing. The Turkish-owned Alfa Watan sank after a drone attack, while sailors rescued all 18 people from a second ship carrying grain, according to Nile Post Uganda (direct), citing a BBC report and Bulgarian officials.

The attacks involved both airborne and sea drones and happened at about 03:00 local time, roughly 70 miles from the Bulgarian coastal town of Byala, Rumen Radev said. The vessels were within Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, an offshore area where the country has rights over natural resources. Radev did not identify who carried out the attacks. Russia had not commented on the incident, leaving responsibility unresolved as the search for the missing crew began.

One crew missing, another brought to safety

The Alfa Watan was a general cargo ship registered under Togo’s flag. It was reportedly sailing toward Sulina in Romania. Neither its cargo nor the number of people aboard was clear. A Bulgarian vessel had been nearby, but those reaching the scene saw only the overturned boat and floating emergency equipment. A search operation was launched, with the fate of the crew still unknown in the report.

The second vessel, the Palau-flagged Able, was transporting grain. Its last reported position was five nautical miles from the Alfa Watan. Bulgarian sailors rescued its 18 crew members, including two injured in a fire aboard the ship. Eleven of those rescued were Turkish nationals and seven were Indian. The report did not establish the extent of the vessel’s damage or what would happen to its grain cargo.

Radev condemned the strikes as a serious breach of maritime law, the rules governing activity at sea. He linked the danger to the continuing war in Ukraine without accusing Russia of responsibility for these attacks. His warning was that a prolonged war would spread into a wider area and raise the risk of a much broader conflict.

“Such an attack within the Bulgarian exclusive economic zone is absolutely unacceptable.” — Rumen Radev

Civilian shipping faces widening danger

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also condemned the targeting of commercial ships and their crews. Writing on X, she said the Black Sea situation was becoming more concerning and noted that lives had already been lost at sea. She also stressed that the precise circumstances of the incidents were still being established.

The attacks came as Russia intensified strikes in the Black Sea, particularly its eastern waters, during its war against Ukraine. A separate attack near Odesa on Tuesday killed one crew member and injured seven others. Ukrainian media said that vessel sailed under the Marshall Islands flag. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had also accused Russia a day earlier of hitting a civilian vessel carrying corn.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday it would increase strikes across Ukraine in response to Zelensky’s comments that Kyiv would step up attacks on Russian oil refineries. Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022. For the latest shipping incident, the immediate focus remains the search for the Alfa Watan’s crew and establishing who carried out the attacks. The grain carrier’s rescue leaves a separate question unresolved: the condition of the Able and its cargo.