Black Sea: the Contship Jet sinks after a three-sea-drone strike off Bulgaria, all 18 crew rescued, as Turkey warns Russia and Ukraine

Another merchant ship has been struck in the Black Sea, this time in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone and while the defence ministers of the three NATO littoral states were meeting in Sofia. The container ship Contship Jet, flying the Liberian flag and bound for the Romanian port of Constanța, was hit by sea drones around midday on Wednesday, October 28. All 18 crew members were rescued. As Reuters reported in our earlier report, the ship is managed by the Greece-based Contships Management.

Update, Thursday, October 29: the Contship Jet has sunk. Bulgaria’s Varna Regional Administration confirmed the sinking to the public broadcaster BNT. The strikes had opened three breaches in the ship’s starboard side. Bulgarian authorities will take seawater samples at five points along the coast, at Durankulak, Shabla, Cape Kaliakra, Byala and Sozopol. The 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians among the crew arrived in Varna on Wednesday evening.

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Defence announced that the ship was hit by a surface drone at 12:00 Bulgarian time, 17 miles east of Cape Kaliakra. The Bulgarian Navy’s surveillance systems and a French maritime patrol aircraft recorded three strikes on the vessel in total. The information about the sea drones was relayed to the Navy’s operations centre by the French aircraft, which was flying over the western Black Sea. France has deployed an Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft for surveillance of the area at the Mihail Kogălniceanu base in Romania, as we reported in Black Sea: a French Atlantique 2 watches Romania’s EEZ.

Immediately after the first strike three Bulgarian Navy ships headed to the spot for a search and rescue operation. By 13:45 all seafarers had been rescued, and the ministry called the operation successful.

Bulgarian Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov confirmed the strike in Sofia, noting that it happened during the trilateral meeting. “While this meeting was going on, a container ship was hit by three sea drones in the adjacent sea area, about 21 miles from Shabla,” he said, in statements recorded by BNT. He added that such tragic incidents are a “dangerous escalation of tension” and create serious risks for the safety of navigation.

Taking part in the trilateral, together with Stoyanov, were Romanian Defence Minister Ștefan-Radu Oprea and his Turkish counterpart Yaşar Güler, as well as the chiefs of the armed forces of Bulgaria and Turkey, Admiral Emil Eftimov and General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu, and Romania’s deputy chief, Lt. Gen. Dragoș-Dumitru Iacob. The Bulgarian ministry’s announcement of the meeting says the three countries “categorically” condemn the drone attacks on merchant ships and call for them to stop immediately. They agreed to strengthen the exchange of information, situational awareness and early-warning capabilities. Stoyanov also mentioned the creation of a trilateral coordination mechanism for the Black Sea.

Güler appealed to Russia and Ukraine. “We see with concern the intense attacks on merchant ships in the Black Sea and call on the parties to show prudence, within the principle of free navigation on the high seas,” he said, according to Turkish press reports of the joint press conference. Turkey, he said, reserves all its legitimate rights in the event of attacks on Turkish-flagged or Turkish-managed ships, and he considers it useful to warn both sides so that they are more careful. He stressed that the three countries do not lack the capability to take measures, but called for “rational decisions” and for avoiding moves that raise tension.

Ankara had already proposed a moratorium on attacks on merchant ships. Güler said in Sofia that the necessary warnings are continually being given to both sides so that commercial navigation stays out of the conflict. The common stance of the three countries, he added, reminds the belligerents that the Black Sea’s trade routes and the security of the coastal states are an “inviolable red line”.

The three ministers agreed to continue contacts with a meeting at political level in Bucharest and at the level of military experts in Ankara. This is not the first attack in Bulgaria’s EEZ: on October 13 drones struck two merchant ships off Bulgaria, sinking one, as we reported in our coverage of the Shabla attack and its predecessors.