Black Sea Drone Attacks Reach NATO Country's Territorial Waters for the First Time

Suspected Russian drone attacks on a chemical tanker in Romanian waters.

Suspicious Russian drone attack on a chemical tanker in Romanian waters.

Sailors rescued from a ship attacked by a drone arrive at the port of Varna in Bulgaria on October 13, 2026.

Russian drones are suspected of sinking a cargo ship and setting fire to chemical tankers near the Black Sea coasts of Bulgaria and Romania. The latest attacks mean at least seven ships have been attacked in NATO member states' exclusive economic zones - and even inside Romanian territorial waters if Russian involvement in the chemical tankers is confirmed.

Such attacks have prompted calls for NATO to redeploy anti-drone systems to provide more protection. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced in a social media post on Oct. 15 that NATO had increased "anti-drone capabilities" along the alliance's eastern flank after meeting with the leaders of Bulgaria and Romania.

The Comoros-flagged chemical tanker Yara G was hit in Romanian territorial waters. All crew members were rescued and identified.

The NATO statement also explained that a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier, the Sea Destiny, was also targeted in Romanian waters, along with a Tanzanian-flagged tanker, the Dania J, which was attacked in the Danube port city of Izmil, Ukraine. But there are still no details about possible losses and casualties.

It comes just days after suspected Russian drone strikes on Oct. 13 sank a cargo ship and forced the evacuation of another 22 miles off the Bulgarian coast in the Black Sea. These attacks took place in the exclusive economic zone of Bulgaria.

All 15 members of the Ukrainian-owned Chelsea 3 were safely evacuated by a Bulgarian rescue operation after three drones hit the ship.

These incidents are the latest in a growing series of unprecedented attacks on Black Sea vessels in the exclusive economic zones of NATO countries. A week earlier, air and naval drones sank the Togolese-flagged cargo ship Alpha Watan and set fire to the Palau-flagged cargo ship Able about 80 miles (128 km) off the coast of Bulgaria on October 6.

Able's 18 crew members were rescued - two required hospitalization - but the 10-person crew of Alpha Watan was presumed dead after rescuers failed to find any survivors.

Such incidents first began when the Turkish cargo ship Royad Mamedov was attacked by drones and eventually sank off the Romanian Black Sea coast on October 5. All 11 crew members were rescued.

In response to these attacks, Bulgaria has increased its cooperation with the affected NATO countries and the alliance as a whole. On October 14, Bulgaria's Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told the country's parliament that the country would join NATO's Drone Edge initiative, which involves member states committing a total of $40 billion to the project, according to independent news outlet The Sofia Globe, to develop more anti-drone capabilities over the next five years.

Diplomats told POLITICO that NATO officials began exploring the possibility of moving existing anti-drone countermeasures to the region after receiving requests from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. The three countries are also cooperating on an initiative to protect freedom of navigation in the Black Sea that Bulgarian Prime Minister Radev plans to present to the European Union this week.

NATO navies have avoided military exercises in the Black Sea since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in accordance with the 1936 Monterey Convention, which allows Turkey to restrict the passage of ships through the straits leading to the Black Sea. These Turkish actions have also prevented the Russian Black Sea Fleet from being reinforced or rotated during the war.

Despite lacking a conventional navy, Ukraine has been able to largely neutralize Russian warships and disrupt Russian-linked shipping and ports using aerial and naval drones. But Russia has countered with its drone attacks on Ukrainian ports and ships and has sometimes targeted the ships of other countries in the region.

According to the Carnegie International Institute, as of the fall of 2023, Ukrainian ships usually stick to sea lanes that pass through the territorial waters of Romania, Bulgaria, or Türkiye in the Black Sea. Peace. Such Black Sea shipping is especially important for Ukraine's agricultural grain exports, which comprise more than 90 percent.

According to Politico, the latest wave of possible Russian attacks in the Black Sea is now disrupting the shipping of ships carrying Ukraine's latest crop to the rest of Europe, and some shipments have been diverted overland or through the Danube River.

These unprecedented attacks in waters near NATO countries coincide with a growing wave of incidents attributed to Russia's hybrid warfare or gray zone tactics. Such incidents include an explosive drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport in Germany and a Russian drone boat loaded with explosives floating near a Romanian offshore gas platform in the Black Sea.

But since the start of the war, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria have continued to upgrade their navies while forging closer cooperation on maritime security, according to Carnegie. Increasing risks to shipping in the Black Sea are likely to accelerate this process of cooperation - and for the NATO alliance as a whole.

This article was updated on October 15 with news of the latest attacks on chemical tankers near and within Romanian territorial waters and NATO's response.

Jeremy Hsu is a reporter covering a wide range of topics in deep technology and artificial intelligence. He has previously written for New Scientist, Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, Wired, Undark Magazine, and MIT Tech Review, among many other publications, on topics such as deepfake, data centers, drones, battery technology, robotics, and GPS jamming. He also holds a master's degree in journalism from New York University, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in the history and sociology of science, with a minor in English.