A merchant ship caught fire and sank near Romania; a drone attack is suspected
On the evening of August 27, a merchant ship caught fire and subsequently sank off the coast of Romania in the Black Sea. Romanian President Nicușor Dan stated that the ship may have been the victim of an attack.
On Friday, the Romanian Border Police confirmed a fire aboard the merchant ship, which was passing through Romania’s exclusive economic zone.
However, the exact cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
Romanian President Nicușor Dan, commenting on the incident during a press conference in Chișinău, said:
“The vessel was attacked… It appears to have sunk.”
At the same time, the head of state emphasized that there is currently no information about who might be behind the possible attack.
“An investigation will be conducted, and everything will be clarified, but we should not start making assumptions,” said Nicușor Dan.
According to him, the incident occurred outside Romania’s territorial waters, within its exclusive economic zone.
There were 12 people on board the merchant ship. According to the Romanian Border Police, all of them were rescued.
Ten crew members were rescued by Romanian border guards, and two others were rescued by the crew of another merchant ship.
There have been no reports of fatalities or injuries resulting from the incident.
Reuters notes that shipping and port infrastructure in the Black Sea have repeatedly been targeted since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
According to the publication, the frequency of such attacks increased in 2026.
At the same time, the circumstances surrounding the fire and sinking of the merchant ship off the Romanian coast have yet to be determined during the investigation.
This was reported by Reuters.
Earlier, the U.S. military carried out a deadly strike against a high-speed vessel traveling along established drug trafficking routes in the Caribbean. The operation resulted in the deaths of four people, whom U.S. officials identified as drug traffickers.
