Seven missing after suspected drone strike in Black Sea

Rescuers were searching for seven missing crew from one of two chemical tankers that caught fire overnight inside Romanian territorial waters in the Black Sea, after ⁠Russian drones strayed into Romanian airspace, Romanian officials said.

Romanian officials stopped short of explicitly linking the fires onboard the ships to the Russian drones.

But the incidents follow drone strikes on at least five other cargo ships near the coasts of Romania and neighbouring fellow NATO member Bulgaria over the past 10 days.

At least 23 sailors were lost from those strikes, which unlike the latest incidents took place just outside NATO's territorial waters.

The two ships hit overnight were ‌both anchored in the ⁠Black Sea near the mouth of the canal leading out of the Danube River, a major shipping route used by Ukraine as Russia has attacked Ukraine's own Black Sea ports.

Romania's naval authority said it received an emergency alert from the San Marino-flagged tanker Wine Trader. Seven of its 12 crew were missing ‌and four were safe.

Earlier, the Comoros-flagged chemical and oil tanker Yara Jalso caught fire. Romanian authorities initially said it was not clear ⁠whether it had been attacked. All its crew were safe.

Romania shares a ‌614km border with Ukraine, much of it along the Danube. It has reported ⁠repeated breaches ‌of its airspace by Russian drones over the past four years.

Both Wine Trader and Yara J caught fire near the mouth of the Danube River's Sulina Canal leading to the Black Sea, where ships often ⁠anchor waiting to pass because of delays from weather and congestion.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev has said that the EU is to discuss a moratorium to stop attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea.

Speaking in Brussels, he said; "It is absolutely a fragrant violation of international law and the law of the sea. So we are going to implement any measures to calm down the situation and today we are going to discuss the proposed moratorium to stop attacking on civilian ships within the Black Sea."

He added; "We have our assumptions. We have certain assumptions, and I expressed our assumptions in front of the Russian ambassador. I summoned the Russian ambassador in Bulgaria because we don't believe that Ukraine will attack its own ships and crews. There is no logic here. So the results of this attack favour Russia.

"However, we don't have any solid evidence that the drones are Russian. We have tried to do our best to investigate one of the survived ships. We sent there special crews.They searched the ship, but they found nothing."

Mr Radev said that a damaged ship, the Chelsea 3, is being brought to a Bulgarian harbour and once it arrives "we'll launch a full terror investigation trying to find any drone debris. Then we'll have solid, solid evidence to blame any of the countries."

Increasing attacks on Black Sea shipping ⁠connected with the Russia-Ukraine war in recent months have threatened to cause a global food crisis, as both countries are major exporters of grain.

Russia has been bombing Ukraine's Black Sea ports, forcing Kyiv to rely increasingly on Danube River ports and shipping routes close to the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania. For its part, Ukraine has targeted Russian ships near ‌the mouth of the Don River in the Azov Sea.