Ship sinks in new drone attack off Bulgaria, PM summons Russian ambassador

A merchant ship has sunk after drones hit two vessels off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, Prime Minister Rumen Radev has said. He indicated Russia was suspected of the attacks and that he had called in its ambassador.One of the ships went down 17 nautical miles (31km) east of Krapets and one crew member was saved, he said. The other, Ukrainian-owned vessel was hit by three drones 18 nautical miles from the town of Byala and all 15 crew were rescued, he added.The drone attacks come a week after two other commercial ships were hit by sea and aerial drones in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone. One of the ships, the Alfa Watan, sank and all 10 crew, including nine Syrians, are presumed dead.Radev convened an emergency meeting on Tuesday and said he had summoned Russian envoy Eleonora Mitrofanova. Although there was no conclusive evidence of blame on "either side... the logic suggests that the outcome benefits the Russian Federation", he said.Bulgaria is a Nato member and the prime minister said he would speak shortly to secretary general Mark Rutte. Radev had earlier asked Nato and the EU for technical assistance in investigating the 6 October attacks, indicating it was unclear whether Russia and Ukraine were behind them.Radev came to office during the summer and has since rejected suggestions that he is "pro-Russian".Ukraine has directly blamed Russia for the latest attacks and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke on Tuesday of the Black Sea becoming "another front of escalation of the Ukraine" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="217061" data-entity-type="event">Russian war in Ukraine. This is unacceptable".