Ship sinks off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast after being hit by drones

A crew member of the Liberian-flagged container ship Contship Jet, which was attacked by drones, is evacuated and transported to the port of Varna, Bulgaria, aboard the Bulgarian Navy rescue ship "Proteo", late Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Petko Momchilov)

SOFIA, Bulgaria — A Liberian-flagged vessel that was hit by drones off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast has sunk, the local maritime administration said Thursday.

Three maritime drones struck the container ship Contship Jet about 21 nautical miles off the coast of Bulgaria on Wednesday, Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said. It was the fifth drone attack in the NATO country’s exclusive economic zone this month.

The Greek-managed container ship was en route from Israel’s port of Haifa to Constanța in Romania. All 18 crew members, 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians, were rescued by Bulgarian naval and border police vessels and taken to the port city of Varna for medical checks.

Some of the containers on board were carrying lithium-ion batteries, flammable liquids, gases and other hazardous materials, the site maritime.bg reported. Navy teams reported no signs of pollution after taking samples from several locations in Bulgarian territorial waters.

The incident took place as defence ministers from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkiye met in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, to discuss security in the Black Sea region.

In a statement after the talks, the three NATO countries strongly condemned the drone attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea and called for an “immediate cessation of attacks that threaten commercial ships, maritime infrastructure and the safety of maritime activities.” They also agreed on stronger intelligence sharing, early warning capabilities and coordination in the Black Sea.

A string of such incidents off the coasts of NATO members Romania and Bulgaria this month has led some alliance members to wonder if Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to test their support for Ukraine in its war against Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

Russia has not taken responsibility for the recent attacks, but suspicion has fallen on Moscow. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev told his country’s Parliament earlier this month that “the logic points in that direction … The problem is that we cannot prove it.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Oct. 15 on X that the alliance had “strengthened our posture along the eastern flank including with increasing counter-drone capabilities” in the face of increasingly frequent strikes on commercial vessels.