Bulgaria expects to join a NATO anti-drone initiative by the end of October, Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said on Wednesday, a day after a drone attack sank a cargo vessel off the country's Black Sea coast for the second time in a week. Stoyanov told a parliamentary hearing that Bulgaria would be part of the project as soon as possible, with October 30 as the expected date, local media reported via Reuters. The search for 11 sailors missing from the sunken ship resumed on Wednesday.
What happened off Bulgaria's coast?
Two cargo ships were hit by drones on October 13 off the Bulgarian coast, and one of them, the Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity, sank, leaving 11 sailors missing at sea. The attacks prompted Sofia to summon Russia's ambassador. Drones had struck two other cargo ships in the same waters on October 6. Bulgaria's transport ministry said the search-and-rescue operation for the missing sailors resumed on Wednesday after bad weather and darkness forced authorities to suspend it on Tuesday evening, Reuters reported.
Who does Bulgaria say was responsible?
Bulgaria has stopped short of explicitly accusing Russia of carrying out the attacks. Prime Minister Rumen Radev said on Tuesday that their outcome benefits the Russian Federation, Reuters reported. Russia's ambassador to Sofia, Eleonora Mitrofanova, said she had no information from the Russian Defence Ministry about attacks on commercial vessels but did not rule out that they could be a provocation by a third party, according to Bulgaria's government, as reported by Reuters. No party has presented public evidence attributing the strikes, and this article treats attribution as unresolved.
Why is Bulgaria turning to NATO?
The attacks have highlighted the threat that drone warfare linked to the Russia-Ukraine war poses to commercial shipping near NATO's southeastern flank, prompting Bulgaria to push for stronger alliance defences in the Black Sea, Reuters reported. Russia has been bombing Ukraine's Black Sea ports, forcing Kyiv to rely increasingly on Danube river ports and shipping routes close to the coasts of NATO members Bulgaria and Romania, while Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian grain-exporting ships in other parts of the Black Sea and near the mouth of the Don River in the Sea of Azov, according to Reuters. Bulgaria's expected entry into the NATO anti-drone initiative by October 30 is the first concrete alliance measure Sofia has announced in direct response to the sinkings.
