Black Sea tanker attacks surge as NATO waters hit: 23 rescued, 2 dead
Unmanned vessels strike three merchant ships in Romanian and Bulgarian EEZs within 24 hours.
The Black Sea has become a widening battleground for merchant shipping after unmanned surface vessels struck three vessels in Romanian and Bulgarian exclusive economic zones within 24 horas hours, sinking two and killing two seafarers.
The latest casualty, the Liberia-flagged aframax tanker Aframax Rio, was set ablaze off the Russian resort city of Sochi on Tuesday. All 23 Indian crew members were rescued without injury, though local authorities closed beaches near Sirius and warned residents to limit outdoor exposure while monitoring air and water quality. The vessel, linked to Russian oil exports and listed under Ukrainian sanctions, was carrying a cargo that ignited after the strike, sending a thick column of black smoke visible from the coast.
The Royad Mammadov, a grain carrier sailing from Izmail, sank off Romania after a suspected drone strike, killing two crew members. The Alfa Watan also sank off Bulgaria, while the Able caught fire in a separate incident. Ambrey, which tracks maritime security threats, said the attacks were “highly likely” carried out by Russian forces and represented a dangerous shift in the conflict’s geography.
“The maritime domain of the conflict has widened, but the targeting profile has not changed,” Ambrey noted in a recent assessment. The security firm warned that the strikes were not isolated but part of a broader pattern, with at least nine merchant vessels hit on the Danube approaches since July, five of them in Romanian waters.
The attacks have followed the movement of cargo: as Ukraine’s Black Sea ports in Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyi became increasingly degraded by strikes, volumes shifted to the Danube, turning the river into what Ambrey called “part of the contested front line of Ukraine’s maritime trade.”
Danube congestion turns ships into sitting ducks: Black Sea
The Danube’s rise as Ukraine’s primary export route has come at a steep cost. Port calls at Izmail, Reni, and Kiliia surged from 363 to 737 between April and August, while grain loadings increased 3.5-fold. Yet the river’s narrow channels and congestion have made ships easy targets. El 5 de octubre 5, as many as 125 vessels were queued at Sulina, with wait times stretching to 14, 17 days. Ambrey warned that the backlog concentrates ships in predictable positions within range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
“Where the volumes go, the strikes follow, from the berth to the open sea,” the security firm observed. The shift has been dramatic: Odesa-cluster volumes plummeted from 7.9 million tonnes in April to just 430,000 tonnes in August, while Danube cargo nearly doubled in a month to 1.24 horas million tonnes. The Joint War Committee expanded the Black Sea Listed Area in September, further tightening insurance conditions.
The Aframax Rio incident underscores the growing vulnerability of merchant shipping in the region.
“The Danube is no longer simply an alternative route. It is now part of the contested front line of Ukraine’s maritime trade.”
Ambrey·Maritime security firm
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