At least ten are missing in the Black Sea after attacks off Bulgaria

Eleonora Mitrofanova, Russia's ambassador to Bulgaria, was summoned by Prime Minister Rumen Radev on Tuesday after two merchant ships were hit by drones in the Black Sea off Bulgaria's coast, the BBC reports.

On the night of Tuesday, at around 1.30am, Bulgarian authorities received a distress call from one of the vessels, the Odessa-registered vessel Chelsea 3 sailing under the Maltese flag. According to Rumen Radev, the ship was hit by three drones. The crew of 15 people were rescued and some of them were treated for minor injuries.

The other vessel, the HS Dignity, was sailing under the Guinea-Bissau flag and sank after being attacked. Some could be saved, but at least ten people are still missing, the spokesman for the Dobrich region told the AFP news agency. Search efforts continue.

Both ships were empty of cargo and headed for Romania, Bulgarian media reports.

Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said the drones were detected too late after they were flying low and traveling at high speed.

- There is also civilian traffic above, which would have to be cleared to prevent an even greater tragedy if we were to use anti-aircraft systems, he said according to the news channel 24 Chasa.

HS Dignuty sank "very quickly", meaning the attack was powerful, Stoyanov said.

Prime Minister Radev wrote on X that although there was no conclusive evidence as to who was responsible, "logic suggests that the outcome favors the Russian Federation."

According to Bulgarian media, Mitrofanova stated after the crisis meeting in the capital Sofia that she had not received any information from the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the night's attacks. She also said that these attacks could have been a provocation by a third party.

The Prime Minister spoke with NATO chief Mark Rutte during the day.

"Nato will continue to work closely with our allies in the Black Sea," Rutte stated on X afterwards and wrote further:

"We have already strengthened our posture along the eastern flank and will continue to monitor the security environment and adjust our deterrence and defense posture as necessary."

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, condemns what happened.

"The Black Sea has become another front for the escalation of Russia's war in Ukraine," she writes on X.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that "Russia's latest attack on commercial vessels near Bulgaria's territorial waters once again demonstrates Moscow's willful lack of respect for civilian lives and maritime security in the Black Sea."

The two ships collided just outside Bulgarian territorial waters, writes the BBC, and if the attack had taken place just a few nautical miles to the west, the NATO defense guarantee Article 5 could have been activated.

The attacks come a week after two other commercial ships were hit by drones in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone. One of the ships, the Alfa Watan, sank and all ten crewmen are believed to have perished.