During the night of 12–13 October, two cargo ships were attacked in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone. The Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity sank near Krapets. Five sailors were rescued and eleven remained missing. The Maltese-flagged Chelsea-3 was damaged; all fifteen crew members were evacuated.

Civilian crews on the edge of a conflict

Bulgarian authorities condemned the attacks and called for stronger air and maritime surveillance. Kyiv accused Moscow. Russia said it had no information and raised the possibility of a provocation. Without a published independent conclusion, attribution must continue to be presented as disputed.

Risk spreads through prices

A drone costs far less than a ship and can impose substantial expenses across a logistics chain. When an area is considered dangerous, shipowners may change routes, insurers raise premiums and ports strengthen procedures. Each measure slows trade and increases its cost.

The Black Sea plays a central role in grain exports from Ukraine and Russia. Repeated attacks on civilian ships therefore threaten more than sailors: they can disrupt food flows on which importing countries depend.

Monitoring without further militarising trade

Sofia’s proposed immediate response centres on a better understanding of the situation at sea and in the air, in coordination with Romania, Türkiye, the European Union and NATO. The challenge is to protect crews and identify threats without automatically conflating commercial navigation with military activity.

For civilian operators, information remains the priority: reliable alerts, emergency procedures and rapid communication with authorities. Publishing tactical details about vulnerabilities or ways to evade defences would be irresponsible; the journalistic task is to explain the human and economic consequences.

What to take away

Drones have pushed the front line towards trade routes. While attribution remains disputed and surveillance incomplete, the cost of uncertainty will fall first on crews and then on the economy that depends on these ships.