A string of drone attacks on at least seven cargo vessels in the Black Sea this month, off the coasts of NATO members Romania and Bulgaria, has some members of the alliance wondering if Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking escalation to test their support for Ukraine in its war against Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

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The attacks in the two countries’ exclusive economic zones threaten a global shipping route and have left two people dead, with at least 25 still missing. They also run the risk of drawing other countries directly into the war for Ukraine.

Throughout the war, Russia has repeatedly bombarded Ukraine’s Black Sea and Danube River ports, leaving Kyiv increasingly reliant on alternative routes to get its grain exports to markets in Africa and West Asia. Russian drones have repeatedly violated Romanian airspace near some of Ukraine’s Danube ports.

In the latest incidents, fires broke out on two ships struck by drones on Wednesday (October 14, 2026) and Thursday (October 15), one in Romania’s territorial waters.

Romanian President Nicușor Dan said Thursday (October 15) in Brussels that “two drones” had hit the vessels but did not say whose drones they were. “There will be a reaction from the Romanian state,” he warned.

Increasingly, the suspicion falls on Russia. “There is no logic in Ukraine attacking its own ships and crews, given that the outcome of all these attacks favours Russia — and indeed, the logic points in that direction,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev told his country’s Parliament.

“The problem is that we cannot prove it.”

Multiple vessels struck by drones in October

The San Marino-flagged Wine Trader, a chemical tanker travelling from Tunisia to Romania, was struck by a drone on Thursday (October 15) and caught fire. Five crew members were rescued but another seven are missing.

On Wednesday, a drone strike and fire were reported on the Comoros-flagged Yara J, a chemical and oil tanker travelling from Turkey to Romania.

Romania’s acting Defence Minister Radu Miruta said an investigation was underway.

On Tuesday, two ships were struck by drones off Bulgaria’s coast. Rescuers evacuated all 15 crew members from the Ukraine-operated Chelsea 3, sailing under a Maltese flag, but 11 crew members from the Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity are still missing.

The crew of the Chelsea 3 reported the ship’s deck and hull were hit by three aerial drones.

Earlier this month, sea and aerial drones attacked two other commercial vessels in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone. A Togo-flagged ship sank with no sign of the 12 sailors reported on board, while a Bulgarian ferry evacuated 18 crew members from a Palau-flagged vessel that was damaged.

A day earlier, a Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying corn caught fire following a drone attack and later sank off the coast of Romania. Two people died and 11 crew members were rescued.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “a horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel” in neutral waters.

Russia’s ambassador in Sofia, Bulgaria, said she didn’t have any information from the Russian Defense Ministry.

NATO’s defense clause under scrutiny

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on X on Thursday (October 15) that he met Radev and Dan to discuss security in the Black Sea and “the latest attacks on commercial shipping.”

“NATO has strengthened our posture along the eastern flank including with increasing counter-drone capabilities,” he said. “NATO will continue to work closely with our Allies in the Black Sea, adjusting our deterrence and defense posture as needed.”

Article 5 of the NATO charter has a mutual defence guarantee — an attack on one is an attack on all — but Romanian defence analyst Radu Tudor said it was uncertain as to whether it covers many of the Black Sea drone strikes because they occurred in the alliance members’ exclusive economic zones.

“It’s a matter of discussion whether the exclusive economic zone is included in the Article 5-type reaction or not,” he said. “And it seems that until now, it isn’t — which raised a lot of questions.”

NATO has been too slow to respond in the Black Sea, he argued.

“Tens of incidents are happening and Russia is getting closer to NATO borders. Words are not enough,” Mr. Tudor said.

A growing threat

The Black Sea drone incidents in October are just the latest in a long string of drone airspace incursions into Romania and other NATO members since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While most have come from Russia, Ukrainian drones have also crossed borders.

In August, Romania deployed two F-16 fighter jets to destroy a naval drone that was reportedly carrying explosives and was spotted near a major Black Sea gas project, a decision that Acting Defence Minister Miruta said was made to “protect the lives of the several hundred people” working on the gas platform.

A source in Romania’s defence sector, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the incidents, told The Associated Press that the attacks are designed to hurt Ukraine economically and that “Romania is not the target right now.”

“All summer we’ve been hunting all kinds of (drone) debris, water drones, sea drones, air drones, debris in the water, on the beaches,” they said. “If this continues … someone should do something about that.”

Potential calls for an escort corridor

The source added that they have heard Turkey “would like to summon all the riparian (Black Sea) states to plan a mission to escort these convoys” through a militarised safe corridor.

“I’m not sure about Turkish, but our Romanian vessels don’t have anti-air defence systems to protect against drones,” they said. “That would be a high risk for the Navy, for military vessels to escort this.”

In July, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey expanded the Black Sea Mine Countermeasures Task Force naval pact to “expand the missions to the protection of critical submarine infrastructure,” according to Romania’s defence ministry.

It would include, it said, a permanent naval presence in Romania’s exclusive economic zone.

Many commercial vessels are flagged to one country and owned by a company based elsewhere.

“Why would Romania and Turkey escort a ship from Bermuda with, I don’t know, an Argentinian owner just to transport a few hundred tons of grains from Egypt?” the source said. “It’s difficult.”

Bulgarian Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said Wednesday that the country plans to join NATO’s Drone Edge project by the end of October. Launched in July, the initiative — which Romania also joined — aims to invest over $40 billion in “counter-drone capabilities” over the next five years.

Cezar Gheorghe, founder of grain consultancy firm Agricolumn, told the AP that the drone incidents have not negatively impacted trade at Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta. The main concern is a rise in insurance costs in the wider Black Sea, he said.

“The [premium] for the risk is increasing, … everyone who wants to come to Constanta, let’s say from Turkey, from the Bosphorus Strait and across that area, will have a [premium] on insurance costs,” he said.

He added his main concern is a “serious incident” occurring at or near Constanta. In June, a Ukrainian maritime drone exploded at the port, and three others nearby.

“It’s a matter of time,” he said.

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on October 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukrainian drone attacks in the region around Moscow killed five people, local officials said Tuesday (August 4, 2026), while authorities in Ukraine said Russian aerial strikes there also caused at least five civilian deaths.

Since Russia’s invasion more than four years ago, Ukraine has developed long-range drones that can hit targets deep inside Russia. In the past year, they have battered oil facilities, major storage depots and other key infrastructure.

More than 16,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to the United Nations, with the vast majority of them occurring in areas under the Ukrainian government’s control. Casualties have risen steadily each year.

Meanwhile, escalating attacks by both sides on shipping in the Black Sea has reawakened fears that global food security could be put at risk.

Russia says a Ukrainian drone killed 7 on Black Sea coast

The death toll from a drone strike Monday (August 3) in the Russian Black Sea resort of Arkhipo-Osipovka rose to seven, including four children, regional authorities said.

On Tuesday (August 4) morning, Krasnodar regional authorities updated the number of wounded to 58, with 21 of them hospitalised.

Footage circulating online showed a drone slamming into a crowded beach, with what sounded like rapid gunfire ringing in the background. Ukraine has not commented on the strike.

Ukrainian drones attack near Moscow and St Petersburg

A Ukrainian drone attack in the Moscow region, which surrounds but doesn’t include the Russian capital, killed five people and wounded 10 others wounded on Tuesday morning, the region’s Governor Andrei Vorobyov said.

Most damage from the attack occurred in the Chekhov municipal district, where several fires erupted at the Novoselki industrial zone, Mr. Vorobyov said.

In the latest in a string of attacks attack on Russia’s biggest online retailer, Wildberries said Tuesday that its warehouse in the Leningrad region, which lies adjacent to St Petersburg, was on fire.

In the Tver region, located between Moscow and St Petersburg, drone debris inflicted “partial” damage on a wall of a Wildberries warehouse in the village of Emmaus, the region’s governor Vitaly Korolyov said.

Ukrainian drones have over the past 18 days targeted 15 Wildberries warehouses, 13 of which have caught fire, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert Brovdi said. Ukrainian officials say the company provides goods that can be used by the Russian military. Kyiv is also keen to unsettle the Russian public with high-profile attacks.

Overall, the Russian Defense Ministry reported Tuesday morning that its air defences shot down 320 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Russia hits Ukrainian ports and shipping

The Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that its forces the previous night “continued to strike Ukrainian ports, vessels, and port infrastructure” used by Kyiv’s army.

In the port of Chornomorsk, in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, the Russian military said it struck an automobile components plant and a port terminal, where the Ukrainian forces “were repairing military vehicles and storing ammunition and fuel.” In the southern port of Mykolaiv, a bulk carrier with military cargo was damaged, while in Pivdennyi, another Ukrainian Black Sea port, a vessel unloading military cargo was hit, according to the statement.

The ministry also said two bulk carriers taking weapons and military equipment to Ukrainian ports were damaged at sea, south of Odesa.

Turkey on Tuesday repeated its appeal for both Russia and Ukraine to ensure the safety of navigation in the Black Sea after two Turkish-owned ships were attacked by drones after leaving the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement expressed concerns that the war is increasingly spreading across the Black Sea, threatening civilian shipping, and warned such incidents could have broader consequences, including for the global food supply, as important amounts of grain, fertilisers and other key produce moves through those waters.

Ukraine reports more Russian glide bomb attack

Russian attacks on Mykolaiv, including its port, killed an 89-year-old woman and wounded seven other people aged between two and 83, Ukrainian regional officials said.

The Russian strike on civilian infrastructure in southern Odesa region destroyed a private home and wounded two people, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.

Elsewhere, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, six Russian glide bombs killed two girls aged 5 and 10 and an elderly woman, Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration, said.

Russian forces also struck Kharkiv and 18 towns and villages across the northern region over the previous 24 hours, killing one person and injuring seven others, including an 8-year-old child, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration.

Strikes in Balakliia, also in the Kharkiv region, significantly damaged an apartment building, a library, three stores and more than 10 houses, wounding two women, local authorities said.

Two 250-kilo (550 lbs) glide bombs struck Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine on Tuesday morning, injuring 22 people, local officials said.

Kramatorsk sits at the northern end of Ukraine’s Fortress Belt, where Western analysts say Russia’s army is making a renewed effort to break through after four years of attrition.

Vadym Filashkin, head of the regional military administration, urged people remaining near the front line to evacuate, saying evacuation is free and that authorities would help with transportation, housing and other necessary support. (AP) ABD ABD

Speaking at a foreign policy forum in Moscow, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the global security system was “eroding.” File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

There has been a string of high-profile arrests of Western citizens since Moscow ordered its troops into Ukraine. File