Strike near Romanian waters

Seven sailors are missing after a drone strike hit two tankers near Romania's Black Sea coast and left both vessels ablaze. The ships were the Wine Trader and the Yara J. A Nato military source told Reuters: "The drones that caused the fires on board two tankers inside Romanian territorial waters were of Russian origin."

• •The missing crew were from the Wine Trader, a San Marino-flagged tanker travelling from Tunisia to Romania.
• •All crew on the Yara J, struck just inside Romanian waters late on Wednesday, were safe.

Romania's president, Nicușor Dan, said the two ships had been struck by drones but declined to say whether Russia was responsible.

Bucharest's response

Dan called the situation in the Black Sea serious, writing on X that commercial ships are being attacked and seafarers killed, injured and missing very close to the shores of Romania and Bulgaria, and that it has to stop.

Before that, on Thursday, Dan had met Bulgaria's prime minister, Rumen Radev, and Nato's secretary-general, Mark Rutte; the three left the talks aligned on reinforcing defences in the Black Sea.

Nato weighs next steps

Of the alliance's course, Rutte said: "Nato will continue to work closely with our allies in the Black Sea, adjusting our deterrence and defence posture as needed."

According to a Nato official, the North Atlantic Council will take the matter up when it meets next week.

A stretch of coast under repeated attack

The strike is the latest in a string of incidents near Bulgarian and Romanian waters. At least 23 sailors have been reported missing or killed in attacks on commercial shipping along those coasts in the past 10 days, according to Reuters.

• •On Tuesday, drone strikes on two ships off Bulgaria triggered emergency rescue operations; 11 crew from the HS Dignity, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship, remain missing.
• •On the Chelsea 3, a Ukrainian-operated Maltese-flagged ship, all 15 crew were evacuated and five were treated for minor injuries; the crew said three aerial drones hit the deck and hull.

Radev said of that earlier attack: "The results of this attack favour Russia. However, we don't have any solid evidence that the drones are Russians."

Romania shares a 614km (381-mile) border with Ukraine, much of it along the Danube, and has reported frequent drone incursions since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, including a daytime encroachment last November that led Nato to scramble fighter jets. Russia's stepped-up bombing of Ukraine's Black Sea infrastructure has pushed Kyiv to use Danube river ports and Black Sea routes off Romania and Bulgaria to export grain, sunflower oil and other products.

A draft EU summit declaration says attacks on civilian shipping, including member state-flagged vessels such as the recent attacks in Bulgaria's and Romania's exclusive economic zones in the Black Sea, are unacceptable and a serious violation of international and maritime law. Similar incidents in recent weeks have raised fears the zone is becoming another front in Russia's war on Ukraine. The North Atlantic Council takes up the issue at its meeting next week, while Dan has declined to say whether Russia was responsible.