Drone attacks in Black Sea raise questions about NATO coastal defense

On October 13, the HS Dignity, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged merchant ship, sank after a drone attack about seventeen nautical miles off the Bulgarian coast near Krapets. Eleven sailors remain missing.

The following evening, a fire broke out aboard the Yara J tanker anchored in Romanian territorial waters about nine miles from Sulina. Two drones had been detected in Romanian airspace shortly before, and the cause of the fire remains unconfirmed.

“While I write these lines, two of my country's F-16s have just shot down two jet-propelled drones that had entered Romanian airspace over the Black Sea. Our pilots did not hesitate.”

On October 15, the chemical tanker Wine Trader sent an emergency signal and reported a fire after a drone attack. Romanian rescue vessels responded, and a Black Hawk helicopter evacuated five crew members, including the captain, while searches continued for seven missing crew members.

The incidents are part of a series that the Associated Press says involved at least seven ships in October alone, with two deaths and at least twenty-five missing. The first vessel hit was the Royad Mammadov, which sank off Romania on October 5 while carrying corn from Ukraine to Ravenna; two crew members died.

Neither Bucharest nor Sofia has formally attributed the attacks. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev told parliament that the outcome favors Russia, though he admitted he cannot prove it.

The article argues that NATO defense fails on both sides of the twelve-mile line: beyond it, states lack the legal title to intervene, while within it, they have the title but lack the means to enforce it.