15 October 2026

Two unmanned aerial vehicles struck two vessels that caught fire in Romanian territorial waters overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, Romanian President Nicusor Dan announced at the EU summit in Brussels. Following a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, he described the attacks on merchant ships in the Black Sea as Russia’s attempts to destabilize the alliance’s eastern flank and weaken support for Ukraine, Reuters reports .

On Thursday night, two chemical tankers (both unladen) caught fire, Romanian authorities reported: the Wine Trader, sailing under the San Marino flag, and the Yara J, sailing under the Comoros Islands flag. Both were in Romanian territorial waters, one in the Sulina Canal (the passage from the Black Sea to the Danube), the other near it. The Yara J crew was evacuated without injury; of the Wine Trader’s 12 crew, five were rescued, and seven remain missing.

“The escalation in the western Black Sea is reaching a new level,” commented Andrey Sizov, director of SovEcon. “Until now, there have been no attacks on merchant vessels in NATO territorial waters.” After meeting with Dahn and Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev, Rutte stated that in response to the attacks in the Black Sea, the alliance would adjust its “deterrence and defense posture as necessary.”

Two days earlier, two merchant ships sailing near Bulgarian territorial waters were attacked. One of them, belonging to Ukraine, was attacked by three drones. The other sank after the strikes. According to Radev, Russia’s involvement in these attacks has not yet been confirmed, but a search for “drone remnants” will be conducted in the wreckage.

However, Radev said in Brussels ( quoted by the Financial Times):

We don’t believe Ukraine would attack its own ships and crews. There’s no logic to it. Therefore, the circumstances of this attack point to Russia.

He said the same words to the Russian ambassador, Eleonora Mitrofanova, whom he summoned after the attack on the ships.

Attacks in NATO waters pose a “significant… additional level of threat to vessels operating in the area,” said Thomas Alexa, a maritime security analyst at consultancy Ambrey.

Former Romanian Navy admiral and military analyst Sandu Valentin Mateiu also spoke of the escalation: “They violated maritime law by ignoring the strict conditions under which a civilian vessel can be attacked.” A ship can be a legitimate military target if, for example, it is transporting weapons or violating a blockade, and it must be warned before attacking, Mateiu explained.

According to him, drone attacks spread from the waters near Odessa to Romania’s exclusive economic zone, then to ships near Bulgaria heading to Romania, and finally to Romania’s territorial waters:

This is a serious attack on the sovereignty of a NATO member country.

https://ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/10/15/eskalatsiya-vihodit-na-novii-uroven-rossiiskie-droni-mogli-vpervie-udarit-po-torgovim-sudam-v-vodah-nato-a208757