This is a new, larger development in the same Black Sea shipping crisis Awaaz Punjab reported on Saturday: on Friday night a drone hit the Palau-flagged cargo ship Larissa 1 off Romania. Late on Saturday, three more ships were struck near the Sulina canal, two of them inside Romanian territorial waters. Read the earlier report: drone strikes Larissa 1 in Romanian waters
Drones struck three commercial ships in the Black Sea near Romania's Sulina canal late on Saturday, November 14, Prime Minister Luca Niculescu said on Sunday, adding that Romania's armed forces scrambled fighter jets twice in response.
Source: Reuters
Defence Minister Stefan Radu Oprea said there were no casualties and that the ships' crews managed to control the fires that broke out on board after the strikes. The three ships hit on Saturday night were the Greek-flagged oil and chemical tanker Evia Petrol V, the bulk carrier Marsol and the oil products tanker Ali Najafov, the last two sailing under the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Oprea said.
Source: Reuters
The Evia Petrol V and the Marsol were struck 4 and 5 nautical miles southeast of the Sulina canal, inside Romanian territorial waters, the defence ministry said. The Kyiv Independent, citing the defence ministry via the news agency News.ro, reported the first strike on the Evia Petrol V at about 9:10 p.m. local time, with the Marsol hit roughly 35 minutes later; the ministry also reported an aerial target east of Snake Island, sent up two F-16 fighters and issued drone alerts to residents of Tulcea County.
Source: Kyiv Independent via News.ro, reported by Right Side News
"Unacceptable" — and origin not named
"These incidents are unacceptable and constitute a violation of international law," Niculescu said. "They reflect the deteriorating security situation caused by Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine." Romanian officials did not identify the origin of the drones, saying only that they were a direct consequence of Russia's war in Ukraine. Russia has denied targeting Ukraine's neighbours with drones, and no physical evidence about this weekend's drones has been made public — the origin of the strikes has not been established.
Source: Reuters
A six-week pattern closing on NATO's coast
A Reuters timeline published on Sunday lists at least 13 merchant ships struck or sunk near Romania and Bulgaria since October 5, in a growing maritime campaign that has become a major challenge for NATO in the Black Sea. The deadliest losses came early: the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan sank on October 6 with 12 crew listed missing, the HS Dignity sank off Bulgaria on October 13 with 11 missing, and seven crew were listed missing after the tanker Wine Trader was hit on October 15. On October 23 a drone sank the Comoros-flagged Khoryv off Constanta — Romania blamed Russia outright for that attack — and on October 28 three naval drones sank the Liberian-flagged container ship Contship Jet in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone. CNN, citing shipping and security sources, reported on November 3 that Russia has been combining sea drones and aerial drones in a campaign to choke off trade through Ukrainian ports, including the Danube route; that attribution is reported as CNN's sourcing, not as a Romanian finding for this weekend's strikes.
Source: Reuters timeline / CNN, reported by Right Side News
Why the Sulina canal matters
The Sulina canal is a key Romanian shipping lane linking the Danube river to the Black Sea, and it is used by Ukraine for exports. With Russian strikes hitting Odesa and Ukraine's other sea ports, Ukrainian exporters have shifted cargo to Danube river ports that depend on the Romanian channel — which is why so many of the ships hit in October and November were anchored near Sulina or sailing to or from it, Reuters reported. CNN cited Ukrainian government figures showing wheat exports of 1.09 million tons in September, about half the 2.05 million tons a year earlier.
Source: Reuters / CNN, reported by Right Side News
Oprea said a separate general cargo ship was also hit by a drone late on Friday, again with no casualties; the private television station Digi24 identified that vessel as the Palau-flagged Larissa 1. By the defence minister's account, four ships were hit in two nights.
Source: Reuters / Digi24
Oprea travels to Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet fellow defence ministers. "We need the solidarity of our allies, shown through patrols with surveillance aircraft and through equipment for counter-drone warfare," he said. France has temporarily relocated an Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft to Romania after Bucharest asked for reinforcement.
What happens next will be watched in Brussels and on the water: whether NATO allies add the patrols and counter-drone equipment Romania is asking for, and whether the strikes on merchant shipping near the alliance's own territorial waters continue for a seventh week.
Source: Reuters