SOFIA – Bulgaria’s president warned Wednesday that Russia’s war in Ukraine has significantly worsened the security situation across the Black Sea.
President Iliana Yotova made the remarks after an emergency session of Bulgaria’s Security Council, convened in response to drone attacks on two ships off the country’s Black Sea coast. She stopped short of assigning blame to Russia while Bulgarian investigators examine the incident, but said the war was creating growing dangers for commercial shipping.
“Russia’s war against Ukraine has led to a significant deterioration of the security environment in the Black Sea region,” Yotova said. She added that attacks involving maritime and airborne drones against commercial vessels were becoming more frequent, causing damage, sinking ships and claiming lives.
The meeting brought together senior government and security officials to assess Bulgaria’s maritime defenses and the protection of critical infrastructure amid the wider conflict in Ukraine.
Yotova said the Security Council “categorically condemns” the attacks on commercial vessels, calling them a serious breach of international law. The council, she said, demanded a swift investigation to establish who was responsible.
The attacks on Tuesday marked the first known strike on shipping inside the Black Sea exclusive economic zone of the NATO member Bulgaria.
The two vessels were hit by sea and aerial drones roughly 80 miles (128 kilometers) from Bulgaria’s shoreline.
The Togo-flagged Alfa Watan sustained catastrophic structural damage and sank at the site of the attack. The Palau-flagged Able caught fire, while a Bulgarian ferry rescued all 18 members of its crew.
Bulgaria’s maritime authorities said Wednesday that the search for Alfa Watan’s crew had been called off and would not resume.
Vice Adm. Rumen Nikolov, who directed the rescue response, said crews had found neither survivors nor bodies. He described the blast caused by the drone strike as extraordinarily powerful, saying the vessel went down almost immediately.
Bulgarian officials have not determined where the drones came from. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, has accused Russia of carrying out the strikes.
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The Russian Embassy in Sofia denied any Russian role in the attacks in a statement distributed to local media Wednesday, saying the two ships “were not among the targets hit by Russian armed forces.”
The embassy cited Russia’s Defense Ministry, which said investigators must wait for the findings of the inquiry before determining the “nationality” of the drones.
The strikes came one day after a Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying corn caught fire following a drone attack in the Black Sea and later sank. Two people were killed, while 11 crew members were rescued.
Bulgaria and Romania are continuing to narrow the list of possible suspects. The European Commission said Wednesday that the two countries had requested satellite images after the attacks and that the European Union was supplying them through its space-data analysis center.
If Zelenskyy’s allegations are confirmed, attacks on vessels in a NATO member’s territory would represent a fresh escalation in what European leaders and intelligence officials describe as Russia’s expanding hybrid campaign against the alliance and the 27-member European Union.
Hybrid operations are often designed to unsettle governments, test defensive systems, drain resources or shape public opinion while preserving enough ambiguity to make attribution difficult.
An interactive Associated Press map documenting hybrid incidents indicates a sharp rise in activity, from 59 cases in March 2025 to more than 200 now.
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Lorne Cook reported from Brussels.
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