No pieces of the drone that hit the ship sunk in the Black Sea were found during an inspection of the vessel, so the drone cannot be identified, defence minister Dimitar Stoyanov said at a briefing at the Chayka naval base in Varna. The minister inspected the ship, part of the time from a helicopter.

Stoyanov said a surface drone struck the ship, and the engine room, which he saw from the helicopter, is completely flooded. Russia began its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022. "It is absolutely impossible to say whose drone it is, let alone whether there is a third party," the minister said.

Russia, which started the war against Ukraine, and Ukraine have both denied involvement. Stoyanov said national security should be discussed with evidence, not hypotheses.

Attacks in the economic zones of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey are becoming more frequent and more intense, the minister said. "This will not stop, the war is continuing at full force," he added.

Stoyanov called the claim that the navy gave Ukraine information about a combined strike with Russian drones "even stranger". He flatly denied that any such information was given.