Eight of 12 crew members are lacking after a drone attack left a tanker ablaze off Romania’s coast, naval authorities say.
The San Marino-flagged Wine Trader was 13 nautical miles (24km) east of the mouth of the River Danube at Sulina, when it reported blasts and a fire on Thursday morning. Romanian President Nicușor Dan later confirmed it was struck by drones.
The west coast of the Black Sea has not too long ago seen a spate of drone attacks. A swarm of Russian drones were detected in a single day not far from the scene, close to Ukraine’s Snake Island.
Moscow said two cargo ships with navy cargo heading to Ukraine’s Odesa port were hit during the sea crossing. It did not title the vessels.
On Tuesday, two service provider ships were struck by drones further south along the coast of Bulgaria, Romania’s neighbour, and one of the vessels sank, leaving 11 crew members lacking.
Bulgaria said it suspected Russia was behind that attack, summoning the nation’s envoy.
A search and rescue operation for the eight lacking members of the Wine Trader continues, Romania’s authorities have said. Two Black Hawk helicopters and two rescue boats have been deployed.
The Romanian inside ministry has launched a video displaying one of the helicopters hovering above the vessel.
The precedence is now to attain the 4 crew members confirmed to be alive, while guaranteeing the security of rescue groups with very high waves reported in the space.
The tanker, which was crusing from Tunisia to Romania, reported several explosions on board at about 07:00 native time (05:00 GMT).
Romanian media cited crews on close by ships as saying the Wine Trader was hit by two drones.
The leaders of Romania and Bulgaria are due to talk about shortly whether Article 4 of the Nato treaty should be invoked.
This permits any member of the navy alliance to request consultations with its allies if it believes its territorial integrity or security is threatened.
The Romanian president said: “We want to have all the information about what happened, but there will be a response from the Romanian state.”
Dan is due to meet Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels alongside Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev to talk about growing security threats in the Black Sea area.
The Romanian president said discussions would focus on operational necessities, including further tools to shield transport in the space.
Ukraine has straight blamed Russia for earlier attacks on civilian vessels in the western aspect of the Black Sea – a key route for Ukrainian exports and imports.
On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of the Black Sea changing into “another front of escalation of the Russian war in Ukraine. This is unacceptable”.
Russia’s navy has not too long ago intensified its strikes on vessels in the space, as half of its battle against Ukraine.
Last week, another two ships were struck off Bulgaria, and on the same day Ukraine hit an oil tanker in the Russian Black Sea port of Sochi.
Moscow says it is focusing on ships delivering weapons and dual-use cargo to Ukrainian ports.
Kyiv and its European allies say service provider vessels carrying grain and other civilian cargo are being attacked.
Both Russia and Ukraine are main grain-exporting nations and Turkey has called on both nations to halt attacks in the Black Sea.
Moscow has repeatedly rejected calls by the US and Europe for a naval ceasefire in the Black Sea, blaming Ukraine for attacking Russian service provider ships in the space.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow at present controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
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