Russia suspected of striking two tankers in Nato waters

Two chemical tankers have been set ablaze in Romanian territorial waters, in a further escalation of what western authorities suspect are Russian drones breaching Nato territory.

At least eight crew were missing on Thursday morning as the San Marino-flagged Wine Trader and the Comoros-flagged Yara J both caught fire while being anchored in the Black Sea near the Sulina Canal — a vital waterway near the Ukrainian border and leading to inland shipping routes on the Danube.

Romanian authorities have yet to say what caused the fires, but local media quoted officials saying at least one of the ships was hit by drones amid a rapid escalation of Russian drone incursions in the region.

The Romanian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The country’s defence ministry said overnight into Thursday it had “detected a group of aerial targets near Snake Island”, an uninhabited island off the Romanian coast. Two F-18 fighter jets were scrambled in response, it said.

Another drone was also detected in national airspace south-east of Sulina, above Romania’s territorial waters, prompting authorities to alert citizens along the border shortly before 5am.

At least half a dozen separate drone incursions happened in the past week, according to the ministry.

The tanker fires come two days after Romania’s southern neighbour Bulgaria experienced similar incidents with two cargo ships sailing close to its territorial waters in the Black Sea, along what is the last remaining global access maritime trade route for Ukraine.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said crews so far have not been able to verify Russia was behind the attacks, but they will tow the remaining shipwreck and search for “drone debris”.

“Who is behind the drone attacks? We have our assumptions,” Radev said on Thursday as he arrived at an EU summit in Brussels. “We don’t believe that Ukraine would attack its own ships and crews. There is no logic here. So the results of this attack favour Russia. However, we don’t have any solid evidence that the drones were Russian.”

Analysts expressed concern at the attacks now occurring in Nato territorial waters.

“It is an escalation obviously, over the past month in western Russia and the Black Sea,” said former Romanian Navy admiral and military analyst Sandu Valentin Mateiu. “They have breached maritime laws, ignored strict conditions when a civil ship can be attacked.”

Mateiu said ships must be legitimate military targets, such as vessels carrying weapons or breaching a blockade, and must be warned before being attacked.

He said the drone attacks had spread from waters near the Ukrainian port of Odesa to Romania’s exclusive economic zone, then to vessels bound for Romania near Bulgaria, and finally into Romanian territorial waters. “This is a serious breach of the sovereignty of a Nato country,” Mateiu said.

Tomas Alexa, maritime security analyst at the maritime risk consultancy Ambrey, said hitting ships in Nato waters was a “significant . . . additional threat layer to vessels operating in the area”.

Maritime security company Vanguard said in messages to the shipping industry that the Wine Trader “issued a distress alert, prompting a search and rescue operation involving a rescue vessel and helicopter”.

Of the 12 crew members on board, four were reported safe while eight remain missing.

Aboard the Yara J, “the crew successfully extinguished the fire, with all personnel reported safe”, Vanguard said.