Bulgaria’s Maritime Administration Executive Director, Vice-Admiral Rumen Nikolov, has said the government has halted the search for the missing crew of a ship that sank after being hit by a drone about 70 nautical miles (130 km) off the country’s coast.
According to reports, two ships were hit in a drone attack in Bulgaria’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone. One sank and the other was damaged. The crew of the damaged ship were rescued, but the crew of the sunken one remain missing.
Nikolov said the rescue operation for the crew of the sunken ship would not resume on Wednesday.
“There are no traces of the sailors from the first ship, and there will be none. There is also no information about drone remains, a boat, three life rafts and parts of the ship’s equipment have been found,” he said.
Nikolov said the incident occurred in a so-called “responsible search and rescue zone” and not in the country’s territorial waters, which extend to 12 nautical miles off the coast.
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Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said that it was unclear whether the drones came from Russia or from Ukraine.
Bulgaria does not border either country, but as a NATO member it holds a strategic position on the Black Sea, where both Ukraine and Russia have major ports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in a nightly video address, said an investigation jointly with Bulgaria’s navy had shown that Russia was behind the attack.
Radev said that following the attack his government would approve the purchase of five more surface-to-air missile systems.
