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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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NATO intelligence has confirmed Russian sea drones struck and sank a civilian container vessel just outside alliance member Bulgaria's territorial waters last week, a NATO official told Newsweek. The news came shortly after Western countries pledged to beef up their military footprint in the Black Sea in a bid to shield commercial shipping from the brunt of the Ukraine war.
The Greek-owned Contship Jet succumbed after being struck by three naval drones off the Bulgarian coast east of Cape Kaliakra, in the western Black Sea, on October 28, officials said. The Liberian-flagged vessel was traveling from the Israeli port of Haifa to Constanța in eastern Romania.
Three Bulgarian Navy ships were dispatched for a search and rescue operation to retrieve the 18 crew members on board. No casualties were reported.
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It was the latest in a spree of often lethal attacks on shipping in the Black Sea, a new—and uncomfortable—spilling over of the long-running war in Ukraine into NATO territory.
It has further ratcheted up tensions between Moscow and NATO amid concerns the Kremlin is probing the alliance's response to different types of assaults.
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The NATO official said specific design features of electronic equipment marked the unmanned surface vessels (USVs) as Russian-made, and said a second intelligence source identified the seafaring drones as Russian with "100 percent certainty." The official did not elaborate further.
Some analysts had tentatively described the drones as Moscow-made. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev swerved confirming Russia was responsible, while pledging to summon the Russian envoy to Sofia should this be found to be the case.
The NATO official said the working assumption was Russia is targeting commercial ships deliberately, but does not necessarily intend for the strikes to take place within the territorial waters of NATO members.
Bulgarian authorities said a French sea patrol aircraft had picked up the drones roughly half an hour before they slammed into the ship, allowing the crew to evacuate.
France's military posted an image to social media on Friday, showing an unidentified black USV captured on camera by a French Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft before impact.
The image prompted speculation it could show a Russian Murena-300S or a variant of Moscow's Vizir drone because of similarities in the shape and position of key components.
Kyiv does not have a major navy or large warships, but its military, security and intelligence agencies have wielded long-range missiles, as well as airborne and waterborne drones, to hit a variety of Russian targets in the Black Sea.
Sea drones are often used as kamikaze weapons, producing dramatic footage of the waterborne platforms smashing into Russian ships costing far more than the unmanned systems. But they're also deployed to scope out potential targets or carry out reconnaissance missions around a particular area.
Sea drones travel very low in the water and often blend in with the signatures picked up by radar systems, making them difficult for many of Russia's defenses to pick up.
After Ukraine's success, Russia has invested in creating its own fleet of USVs. Estonian intelligence has warned Russia is now carving out attack-focused USV units across all of its naval fleets and its Caspian Flotilla.
Forty Civilians Killed in 2026
Last month, NATO said it was dispatching more radar systems, drones, patrol aircraft and intelligence teams to the Black Sea in response to the deadly incidents involving cargo vessels. Newsweek understands at least one U.S. military P-8 maritime patrol aircraft has been deployed.
A total of 442 commercial vessels have been attacked in the Black Sea—both by Ukraine and Russia—since the start of 2026, the NATO official said. 40 civilians have been killed this year so far.
The Contship Jet went down in Bulgaria's contiguous zone, referring to an area beyond a country's territorial waters but fewer than 24 nautical miles from shore. Sofia doesn't have control over this area like it does over its territorial waters, but can police certain issues like immigration and taxation.
Some strikes on civilian cargo ships have taken place within territorial waters of NATO members, raising questions about whether this type of attack could trigger the alliance's Article 5 mutual defense clause. All NATO states are obliged to come to the defense of another country under attack, although they can choose how to respond.
One person was killed when a Comoros Islands-flagged ship sank just outside Romanian territorial waters on October 23, which Bucharest blamed on a drone attack.
Eight days earlier, the Wine Trader—a tanker flying under San Marino's flag—was engulfed in flames after drones caused several explosions onboard. Another vessel, the Yara J, was also hit by drones inside Romanian territorial waters within hours of the attack on the chemical tanker.
The HS Dignity, a Guinea Bissau-flagged cargo vessel, sunk 15 nautical miles east of the Bulgarian village of Krapets after a drone attack on October 13. The Ukrainian-owned but Malta-flagged Chelsea 3 was struck by three drones 18 nautical miles from Bulgaria on the same day.
A week earlier, the Able, a Palau-flagged general cargo ship, and the Alfa Watan—a ship flying under Togo's flag—were hit by drones.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Tony Phillips.
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