Bulgaria rules out NATO Article 4 as 11 sailors missing in Black Sea attack

President Iliana Yotova said Bulgaria will not seek to invoke NATO's Article 4 over Tuesday's drone attacks on two commercial ships in the Black Sea, because the vessels were struck in the country's exclusive economic zone rather than its territorial waters, she told broadcaster bTV. Bulgarian officials said 11 sailors remained missing from the ship that sank, after 5 were rescued.

The Malta-flagged, Ukrainian-owned Chelsea 3, sailing from Turkey to Moldova, was struck by three drones off the Bulgarian coast near the town of Byala, at around 01:30 local time on Tuesday, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said. All 15 crew, 7 Ukrainian and 8 Azerbaijani nationals, were evacuated to the port of Varna; 6 were treated for minor injuries, Bulgarian outlet Vesti.bg reported.

A second ship, identified as the Azov Concord, was struck near the village of Krapets and sank, Radev said. Five crew members were rescued and 11 remained missing, according to the Kyiv Independent and German broadcaster Tagesschau, a clearer toll than Radev's initial account of a single rescued crew member. The Azov Concord had been sailing toward the Romanian port of Braila when it was hit, Romanian outlet HotNews reported, and Bulgaria has asked for consultations with Romania given the shared exposure of shipping routes used by all three Black Sea states.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova called the attacks "wholly unacceptable" and a violation of international law, and said she was in constant contact with EU and NATO partners on strengthening air and maritime surveillance, Vesti.bg reported. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he discussed the attacks with Radev and that the alliance had already reinforced its presence on the eastern flank and would keep adjusting its deterrence and defence measures as necessary.

Yotova said inspectors had not yet recovered drone wreckage that could identify who was responsible, and that Bulgaria has asked the European Maritime Safety Agency to send an underwater drone to examine the sunken vessel. She proposed discussing a moratorium on military activity in the Black Sea and called for closer coordination with Romania and Turkey to protect shipping routes used for grain exports, saying Bulgaria's international partners wanted more evidence before acting.

Bulgaria has asked NATO and the EU for technical help investigating the attacks, and Radev said he was summoning Russia's ambassador in Sofia. Radev said Bulgaria lacked clear evidence of who was responsible but that the outcome benefited Russia. Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, blamed Russia directly, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the attacks unacceptable, saying those responsible must be held accountable.

It was the second such attack in the area within about a week, Radev said. In the first, on 6 October, the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan sank about three minutes after being struck, with its 12-member crew still missing; a drone capable of causing such damage would likely have carried a warhead of more than 300 kilograms, Dimitar Nedyalkov of Bulgaria's military academy told Bulgarian broadcaster Nova. A second vessel in that attack, the Palau-flagged Able, caught fire but all 18 of its crew were rescued safely.