Recent drone attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea

On October 5, 2026, the Turkish-flagged grain ship 'Royad Mammadov' caught fire and sank in international waters off the coast of Romania following a suspected drone attack. The vessel, which departed from Izmail, Ukraine, on September 18 carrying corn, was manned by Indian and Azerbaijani nationals. The incident resulted in two confirmed deaths and eleven injuries among the crew. While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attributed the strike to two Russian drones, Romanian authorities have not officially confirmed the cause of the explosion.

Following this event, on October 6, two additional vessels were struck by drones within Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone. Bulgarian rescue services reported that one ship flying the Togo flag sank with its crew missing, while all 18 crew members from a second vessel flying the Palau flag were successfully rescued. The office of Bulgarian President Iliana Iotova has convened an emergency meeting to address the security situation. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated it had conducted strikes against military-related infrastructure in Ukrainian ports, asserting that vessels used for Ukrainian military resupply were targeted.