In brief
An incident on the Bulgarian coast saw a container ship hit by drones, carrying lithium‑ion batteries, sink after midnight. All 18 crew members were rescued and brought to Varna. Bulgarian authorities are conducting a large‑scale seawater sampling program around the site and five coastal towns to detect any contamination.
On Wednesday night, a container ship was hit by three maritime drones about 21 nautical miles southeast of Shabla off the coast of Bulgaria and sank around midnight. According to BTA, the vessel carried lithium‑ion batteries. All 18 crew members were rescued and brought to Varna, where they were safely transferred to local authorities.
Bulgaria’s Varna Regional Administration confirmed the sinking, and Traffic Control alongside the Maritime Administration Executive Agency noted the incident as the fifth drone attack in the country’s exclusive economic zone since the beginning of October. Defence Ministry teams first collected seawater samples in two locations in Bulgarian territorial waters and found no visible signs of pollution, BTA reported.
On Thursday, the Environment and Water Ministry announced that teams from the Black Sea Basin Directorate and the Executive Environment Agency would gather seawater samples at five coastal locations—Durankulak, Shabla, Cape Kaliakra, Byala, and Sozopol. The samples will be tested for petroleum products, polychlorinated biphenyls, metals, and other physicochemical indicators of water quality, the ministry said. The water will be analysed by the Executive Environment Agency’s regional laboratories in Varna and Burgas.
Sampling is also planned in the waters directly surrounding the container ship’s sinking site. The goal is to determine whether pollution is present and to detect changes in seawater quality that cannot be seen through visual inspection alone, the ministry stated. The Environment and Water Ministry and competent authorities will continue inspections and monitoring, with results to be made public, BTA added.
