An unidentified drone exploded in Bulgaria near the border with Romania
In Bulgaria on the morning of August 8, a drone that had entered the country’s airspace from the north exploded near the border with Romania. According to Deutsche Welle, the incident occurred in a sunflower field 100 meters from the border.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev stated that no one was injured in the explosion and that no infrastructure was damaged. According to him, the drone exploded about one kilometer from a Bulgarian compressor station on the route of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, which connects Turkey and Ukraine.
Radev reported that neither Bulgaria nor Romania had detected the drone’s flight. He explained that such drones are difficult to detect due to their small size. Bulgarian authorities also suspect that the drone may have been carrying a significant amount of explosives: according to the prime minister, this was indicated by the force of the explosion and the black smoke.
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The origin and type of the drone are currently being determined. Following an emergency meeting of the government’s security council, Radev said that due to damage to the drone caused by the explosion, it is impossible to determine whether it was civilian or military. He also mentioned the existence of photographs and noted that it was a larger drone, not a “toy drone.”
Bulgarian border guards and the country’s Ministry of Defense are working to determine the drone’s origin. The prime minister announced plans to strengthen surveillance and redeploy the border police’s drone detection and countermeasures capabilities from the border with Turkey to the border with Romania.
Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov stated that the incident will be raised at next week’s meeting of the North Atlantic Council. The drone’s origin and its possible connection to Russia, an aggressor state, or Ukraine have not yet been established.
