Drones Hit Three Ships Off Romania

Three commercial vessels were hit by drones off Romania’s Black Sea coast, Romanian authorities said, in an attack near one of the routes Ukraine uses to move exports by sea and river.

Euronews reported that the vessels were struck near the Sulina canal, which links the Danube to the Black Sea. Romanian Prime Minister Luca Niculescu said the attacks were “unacceptable” and a violation of international law. That is the political language. The harder fact is that commercial shipping was hit close to Romanian waters, and Bucharest says its own military tracked aerial targets in the area.

Defence Minister Stefan Radu Oprea said no injuries were reported and crews put out fires on board. The ships identified by Romanian authorities were the Greek-flagged chemical tanker Evia Petrol V, the Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged bulk carrier Marsol and the oil products tanker Ali Najafov.

Niculescu said Romanian defence radars detected aerial targets and that the air force sent fighter jets on two separate occasions to investigate. That matters more than the condemnation on X. It means Romania is not only protesting a security spillover from Russia’s war on Ukraine; it is documenting that its own air-defence system was activated in response.

The location is awkward for everyone involved. The Sulina canal is not rhetorical terrain. It is a functioning shipping corridor, and interference there raises the cost of pretending the Black Sea war can be neatly contained inside Ukrainian territory.

Russia denied targeting countries neighbouring Ukraine with drones. The source material available through Euronews does not establish who launched the drones that struck the three ships. It does, however, establish the practical effect: civilian commercial vessels were damaged on a route of regional economic importance.

Euronews also cited Ukrainian media reports that another cargo vessel, the Palau-flagged Larissa 1, was hit by a drone while reportedly sailing towards Ukraine. Romanian officials did not fold that vessel into their confirmed account of the three ships struck near Sulina.

Oprea said he would seek allied support through surveillance patrols and counter-drone equipment at talks in Brussels. That is a request for capability, not just solidarity. In Black Sea security, the gap between the two has a habit of catching fire first.