Ships Attacked

Drones struck two ships in the Black Sea off Bulgaria on Tuesday. One sank. A rescue followed, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said.

The Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship Dignity went down after a military strike, the Associated Press and CBC News reported. Five sailors were pulled out alive. Rescuers kept searching for 11 more crew members, Varna district Gov. Mario Smrkov said.

All 15 crew aboard the Ukrainian-operated freighter Chelsea 3, sailing under a Maltese flag, got off the ship. Five were treated for minor injuries, the AP reported. Seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis made up the crew, and they said three aerial drones hit the ship's deck and hull. The strike hit around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, 18 nautical miles off the Bulgarian coast near the town of Byala, Insurance Journal reported.

BBC News and Al Jazeera, also citing Radev, named the sunken vessel as the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and the damaged ship as the Palau-flagged Able, a grain carrier. Rescuers pulled all 18 of its crew members to safety, two with serious injuries. Those outlets placed the strikes roughly 70 nautical miles off Byala, at about 3 a.m.

Bulgaria has no proof of who launched the drones. Radev told Russia's ambassador in Sofia it makes no sense for Ukraine to destroy its own ships, and that the results favor Russia, according to a government statement cited by the AP and Insurance Journal. The ambassador, Eleonora Mitrofanova, said she had no information from Russia's defense ministry. She did not rule out a provocation by a third country, Insurance Journal reported.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha blamed Russia directly. Moscow is using the attacks to weaponize hunger and pressure the world, he wrote on X, the AP and CBC reported. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance has already strengthened its eastern defenses and will keep adjusting them. "Increasingly concerning." That's how European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the situation, the BBC reported. Strikes on ships carrying grain and food have multiplied, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, and they're pushing up world commodity prices.

Radev said Bulgaria will open talks with Romania and Turkey on joint steps to protect shipping. It is also working with the EU and NATO to establish who is responsible. No timeline was given.

Budapest stands in full solidarity with Bulgaria, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said, according to Al Jazeera.