Threats to shipping in NATO's Black Sea waters have jumped 100-fold over the past six months, according to an analysis by maritime security firms.
Bulgaria told the UN General Assembly it is working on an international push to guarantee free shipping in the Black Sea. Bulgaria wants the region taken off the "high risk" list and hopes backing from partners around the world will help push back against strikes on civilian ships. The Black Sea also came up in Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's speech to the assembly.
Turkey's chamber of maritime trade has logged 266 incidents involving ships in the Black Sea since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. A third of those happened in the last six months alone, and at least a third of all incidents involved vessels carrying weapons.
Over the same period, incidents involving military objects in the waters of Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria rose 208%, with 8 new cases reported since the start of September alone. The objects found include unexploded munitions, drones and other unmanned devices washed up on shore or drifting at sea.
In June, a Ukrainian sea drone went off course and exploded at Romania's Constanta port, with no one hurt. That same month, two cargo ships were hit southeast of Odesa — Moscow claimed without evidence that they were carrying weapons, though the strikes fit Russia's pattern of attacks on civilian shipping in the Black Sea. The German-flagged ship Emil lost control after an air strike near Odesa, and the Honduras-flagged ship Mera Queen sank.
In September, a Russian drone hit a civilian cargo ship near Odesa, killing one crew member and wounding five. Two more civilian ships were hit in the same area, leaving one more person dead and causing damage.
Experts agree the nature of the threat in the Black Sea has shifted — from mines to mainly drones. In 2024, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey set up a joint naval mine countermeasures group.