Black Sea shipping war escalates into Bulgaria's waters

Two more merchant ships were hit by drone strikes inside Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone on Tuesday morning, the first attacks in Bulgarian waters since the Black Sea shipping war began. The Alfa Watan sank with its crew missing, and the Able was abandoned after a fire broke out aboard — 18 crew members were rescued and two were severely injured.

The strikes follow Monday's sinking of the Royad Mammadov, a Turkish-owned grain ship bound for Italy that went down off Romania with its captain killed and one crew member missing. Zelenskyy blamed Russia for that attack, and India called it "completely unacceptable." European Commission president von der Leyen condemned the attacks on civilian shipping, and Bulgarian prime minister Radev convened a security council, calling the strikes a "flagrant attack."

Sources: Reuters