Romania blames Russia as drone sinks cargo ship Khoryv off Constanța: one sailor dead, three missing

A Comoros-flagged cargo ship, the Khoryv, sank in the Black Sea off the Romanian port of Constanța on Friday 23 October after what Romanian President Nicușor Dan described as a drone strike. One crew member died, nine were pulled from the water and three remain missing, according to reports based on Romanian authorities.

What Romanian authorities reported

The Romanian Naval Authority said the ship sent a distress call from about 13 nautical miles east of Constanța, just outside Romanian territorial waters. The alert reached the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre at about 10:00 local time, SAFETY4SEA reported. Romania’s Ministry of Interior said the vessel suffered extensive damage, capsized and faced an imminent risk of sinking.

Thirteen people were aboard, ten Ukrainians and three Azerbaijanis. A nearby commercial vessel recovered ten of them, nine alive and one dead. The rescue vessel SAR Artemis was sent from Constanța, while poor weather and low visibility kept a rescue helicopter on the ground. According to MarineTraffic data cited by the Associated Press, the ship had left Turkey on 21 October bound for Sulina.

Early reports spoke only of a possible drone strike, and authorities had not confirmed the cause. President Dan later said the ship was hit by a drone and called the attack “part of Russia’s escalation process in its war in Ukraine”, Reuters reported. The reports read for this article carried no response from Moscow.

A pattern of attacks near NATO waters

Reuters said at least seven cargo ships have been hit off Romania and Bulgaria in the past two weeks, with about 30 sailors reported dead or missing. Most of the vessels were anchored near or heading for the Sulina Canal, which links the Danube to the Black Sea and has become Ukraine’s main export route for grain and vegetable oil since Russian strikes on its own ports. Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria have asked NATO to do more to protect commercial shipping.

NATO announced on 20 October that allies would send additional surveillance, reconnaissance and forensic capabilities to the region, as Geopolitiki reported in NATO to send more surveillance and forensic assets to the Black Sea after drone attacks on merchant ships. The alliance has not publicly attributed the earlier attacks to any country. The EU’s foreign policy chief had already warned of a dangerous escalation, covered in EU foreign policy chief says six suspected Russian drone attacks in ten days mark a dangerous escalation in the Black Sea.

What happens next

The search for the three missing sailors is continuing, and the casualty count could change, according to the reports. Romania said on 22 October that it would speed up the development of maritime surveillance and counter-drone capabilities, SAFETY4SEA noted. Investigators have not yet linked the Khoryv to the earlier incidents, and the cause of the sinking has still to be established officially.