{"id":32240,"date":"2026-10-06T15:11:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/?p=32240"},"modified":"2026-10-06T15:11:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:11:58","slug":"drony-atakuvaly-sudna-bolgariia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/world\/drony-atakuvaly-sudna-bolgariia\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones attacked two vessels in Bulgaria\u2019s exclusive economic zone: one sank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"news-lead\">On 6 October, drones attacked two merchant vessels in Bulgaria\u2019s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea. According to the Bulgarian government and media reports, the ALFA WATAN sank, whilst 18 seafarers were evacuated from the ABLE, two of whom sustained serious injuries; the party responsible for the attack has not yet been identified.<\/p>\n<div class=\"news-summary-box\">\n<p><strong>Briefly about the main points<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An attack on two merchant ships was reported in Bulgaria\u2019s Free Economic Zone at around 03:00.<\/li>\n<li>The ALFA WATAN had sunk; the fate of its crew was unknown at the time of reporting.<\/li>\n<li>Eighteen seamen were evacuated from the ABLE; two sustained serious injuries.<\/li>\n<li>Politicians have called for security consultations, but NATO has not officially initiated any such procedures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>What is known about the attack on the ships?<\/h2>\n<p>The incident took place at around 03:00, east of Cape Saint Athanasius and the town of Byala. This refers specifically to Bulgaria\u2019s exclusive economic zone, not its territorial waters.<\/p>\n<p>According to preliminary identification, the vessels attacked were <strong>ALFA WATAN<\/strong> under the flag of Togo and <strong>ABLE<\/strong> under the Palau flag. The ALFA WATAN sustained severe structural damage and sank. A fire broke out on the ABLE, after which the crew abandoned the vessel.<\/p>\n<p>According to reports from the Associated Press, Deutsche Welle, Nova and BGNES, all 18 crew members from the ABLE have been evacuated. Two of the injured are in a serious condition: one has suffered burns, the other a head injury.<\/p>\n<h2>The search for the crew of the sunken vessel<\/h2>\n<p>The Bulgarian vessel DIOSCURIA took part in the rescue operation. Its crew, who had witnessed the explosion, made their way to the scene and found an overturned boat and life jackets, but were unable to locate any of the crew from the ALFA WATAN at that time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/world\/emco-ammunition-depot-blasts-bulgaria\/\">Bulgaria<\/a> deployed two helicopters and an aerial reconnaissance aircraft to the search operation. The fate of the crew of the sunken vessel remained unknown at the time the reports were published.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister of Bulgaria <strong>Rumen Radev<\/strong> described the attack as a gross violation of international and maritime law. The origin of the drones and the party responsible for the strike have not been officially established.<\/p>\n<h2>Calls for consultations with NATO<\/h2>\n<p>In the wake of the incident, representatives of a number of Bulgarian political parties called for the National Security Advisory Council to be convened. According to BGNES, one proposal in particular was to consider holding consultations with allies on <strong>Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>These are political calls, not an official decision by Bulgaria to make a formal application to NATO. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nato.int\/en\/about-us\/official-texts-and-resources\/official-texts\/1949\/04\/04\/the-north-atlantic-treaty?selectedLocale=uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-schema-attribute=\"about\">Article 4<\/a> provides for consultations with allies if a Member State considers its security, territorial integrity or political independence to be under threat.<\/p>\n<p>The exclusive economic zone is not part of the territorial waters, but Bulgaria has certain sovereign rights and jurisdiction within it. The safety of shipping and the response to emergencies in this zone are of great importance to the country.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 6 October, drones attacked two vessels in Bulgaria\u2019s Free Economic Zone: the ALFA WATAN sank, whilst 18 seafarers were evacuated from the ABLE, two of whom were seriously injured.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":207433346,"featured_media":32239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_description":"6 \u0436\u043e\u0432\u0442\u043d\u044f \u0434\u0440\u043e\u043d\u0438 \u0430\u0442\u0430\u043a\u0443\u0432\u0430\u043b\u0438 \u0434\u0432\u0430 \u0441\u0443\u0434\u043d\u0430 \u0443 \u0412\u0415\u0417 \u0411\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0430\u0440\u0456\u0457: ALFA WATAN \u0437\u0430\u0442\u043e\u043d\u0443\u043b\u043e, \u0437 ABLE \u0435\u0432\u0430\u043a\u0443\u044e\u0432\u0430\u043b\u0438 18 \u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u0456\u0432, \u0434\u0432\u043e\u0454 \u0437 \u043d\u0438\u0445 \u0442\u044f\u0436\u043a\u043e \u043f\u043e\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0435\u043d\u0456.","rank_math_title":"\u0414\u0440\u043e\u043d\u0438 \u0430\u0442\u0430\u043a\u0443\u0432\u0430\u043b\u0438 \u0434\u0432\u0430 \u0441\u0443\u0434\u043d\u0430 \u0443 \u0412\u0415\u0417 \u0411\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0430\u0440\u0456\u0457: \u043e\u0434\u043d\u0435 \u0437\u0430\u0442\u043e\u043d\u0443\u043b\u043e","rank_math_focus_keyword":"\u0414\u0440\u043e\u043d\u0438 \u0430\u0442\u0430\u043a\u0443\u0432\u0430\u043b\u0438 \u0434\u0432\u0430 \u0441\u0443\u0434\u043d\u0430","td_subtitle":"","subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[805619],"tags":[805624],"class_list":["post-32240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-805624"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207433346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32241,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32240\/revisions\/32241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}