A Greek-owned container ship chartered by an Israeli shipping company has sunk in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria after being attacked by a sea drone on Wednesday.
All 18-crew members have been rescued, but the attack was actually filmed – reportedly by someone aboard the stricken vessel, as well as footage captured by a nearby French reconnaissance patrol sent to investigate the incident – resulting in some dramatic and frightening images.
The vessel has since been identified as Liberian-flagged Contship Jet, said to have been carrying over 400 shipping containers en route to Romanian port of Constanța from Haifa, Israel.
More footage, apparently captured by a crew member just before the strike occurred, was released via Bulgarian news outlets.
The video featured rare close-up images of an unmanned surface vessel approaching the container ship at a high rate of speed moments before impact.
The large vessel sinking, in footage that emerged and widely circulated Thursday…
🇧🇬 Container ship sinks off Bulgaria after naval drone attack
As previously reported by Bulgaria’s Defense Ministry, the Liberia-flagged Contship Jet was sailing from Haifa, Israel, to the Romanian port of Constanța and was hit three times.
The damage was recorded by a French patrol aircraft. The crew of the container ship was rescued.
Since the beginning of October, unmanned boats and drones have regularly attacked vessels in the Black Sea off the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria. Targets have included ships linked to the transport of Ukrainian grain and other cargo.
In total, at least nine large commercial vessels have been attacked off the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania during October.
Ukraine accuses Russia of the attacks. Bucharest and Sofia also place responsibility on Moscow.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 29, 2026
It’s as yet unclear who was behind the vessel attack. Over the last several months, Ukraine and Russia have been trading blows with maritime attacks in the Black Sea.
Reuters in its reporting points the finger at Russia:
It was not immediately clear who had carried out the attack, which added to growing concerns about the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, opens new tab on commercial shipping in the area. Ambrey, a global maritime risk management firm, has analysed footage, reportedly filmed on a handheld device by a crew member on board, showing a matte black, 5-6 meter-long unmanned surface vehicle (USV) approaching the vessel at high speed. The USV was likely a variant of a Russian drone, said Tomas Alexa, a senior analyst at Ambrey Analytics, adding that its manoeuvres indicated it was controlled remotely.
NATO said earlier this month that it would increase its military presence and patrols – primarily for the purpose of surveillance and deterrence – in the Black Sea region, but this has yet to deter either warring side, related to the Ukraine conflict.
“We will continue to stand united and ensure that we are ready and able to address any threat and to keep our one billion people safe,” Allison Hart, NATO’s principal spokesperson, said of member nations and the collective population of the alliance.