Drones sank a ship some thirty kilometres off the Bulgarian coast: Radev looks to Moscow, but there's no proof

The distress signal came in at 1:30 a.m. Three drones hit the deck and side of the cargo ship "Chelsea 3", 18 nautical miles east of Byala - around 33 kilometres off the Bulgarian coast. While the Security Council in Sofia sat in emergency session, news arrived of a second ship being hit. That one sank.

The "Chelsea 3" sails under the Maltese flag and is owned by a Ukrainian company registered in Odesa. It was sailing from the Turkish port of Giresun to Moldova's Giurgiulești. Bulgarian border police evacuated all 15 crew members - seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis - and took them to Varna, where five were treated for minor injuries. The ship stayed afloat.

The second, the "Azov Concord", under the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis, was sailing from Romania to Turkey. It was hit around 31 kilometres east of the village of Krapets and sank. So far one crew member has been rescued, and the search for the rest continues.

Prime Minister Rumen Radev didn't mince his words: "This is absolutely unacceptable, yet another attack in the immediate vicinity of our territorial waters." He informed Bulgaria's representatives in NATO and the European Union, announced a call with Alliance Secretary General Mark Rutte, and will also summon the Russian ambassador in Sofia, Eleonora Mitrofanova.

Here is the most interesting part. Radev openly admits he has no proof in hand: "We do not have firm and clear evidence to accuse any side, but logic shows that the outcome benefits the Russian Federation." That is the diplomatic way of saying "we know, but we can't prove it". Sofia will ask NATO and the EU for help in establishing where the drones came from, and for stronger surveillance of the air and sea.

And this isn't the first time. Just a week earlier, on October 6, the Togo-flagged "Alfa Vatan" sank in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone, and the Palau-flagged "Able" was badly damaged and caught fire. The sailors from the sunken ship are listed as missing. Zelensky blamed Russia at the time, Moscow denied it, and the Bulgarian investigation still has no final results.

In one week, four cargo ships have been hit in Bulgarian waters, and two are on the seabed. Varna and Burgas are holiday resorts, not a front line - or so we thought. If a NATO and EU member can't say who is sinking ships on its doorstep, what does the protection that membership promises actually mean? And do we really believe that a war burning some thirty kilometres off the Bulgarian coast is somebody else's business?