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Eleven sailors were missing at sea yesterday from a ship sunk by a drone attack off the coast of Bulgaria, possibly the second deadly sinking of a cargo vessel in the area in a week, prompting Bulgaria to summon Russia’s ambassador.  Two cargo ships were hit by drones overnight and one was sunk, Bulgarian officials said. Bulgaria stopped short of explicitly accusing Russia of carrying out the attacks but Prime Minister Rumen Radev said their outcome “benefits the Russian Federation”. There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the incident.  “This is absolutely unacceptable — another attack in the immediate vicinity of Bulgarian territorial waters,” Radev said in a televised address.The attacks were also condemned by Ukraine and the EU. “The Black Sea has become another front of escalation of the Russian war in Ukraine,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X. “Those responsible should be held accountable.”  Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X yesterday that the strike “once again demonstrates Moscow’s deliberate disregard for civilian lives”.“The Black Sea is a lifeline for global food security. Russia is attacking it to weaponise hunger and hold the world hostage,” he said.Speaking with von der Leyen and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte by telephone on Tuesday, Radev urged their support to bolster his country’s maritime and airspace surveillance, the Bulgarian government said in a statement.  Nato will continue to adjust its military presence on its eastern flank “as needed”, Rutte said. Bulgarian officials said five crew members had been rescued but 11 were still listed as missing from the ship which sank off the coast of the village of Krapets. President Iliana Iotova identified the vessel as the Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship HS Dignity and said a search and rescue operation was ongoing. Another ship, the Chelsea 3 sailing under a Maltese flag, was also hit by three drones overnight, Bulgarian officials said. All crew from that ship — seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis — were rescued and none seriously injured.  A week ago nine Syrian sailors and one Egyptian were lost at sea from a ship that sank when hit by drones in Bulgaria’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone. Another ship was also hit that night but the crew was rescued.  After meeting Radev in Sofia, Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova said she had no information from the Russian Defence Ministry about attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea but did not rule out they could be a provocation by a third party, the Bulgarian government said.  More than four and a half years into the war that Moscow launched with its full-scale invasion in 2022, Black Sea shipping has increasingly been drawn into a prolonged battle of economic endurance.  Ukraine and Russia are both among the world’s largest exporters of grain. Russia has been bombing Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, forcing Ukraine to rely increasingly on river ports on the Danube and shipping routes close to the coasts of Nato members Bulgaria and Romania. 

A shipowner wanted over a 2020 blast at Beirut port that killed more than 220 people has been arrested in Bulgaria, officials said Tuesday.The August 4, 2020 disaster was one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions, ravaging swathes of the Lebanese capital and injuring more than 6,500 people.Authorities have said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.Beirut authorities identified Igor Grechushkin, a 48-year-old Russian-Cypriot citizen, as the owner of the Rhosus, the ship that transported the ammonium nitrate.Interpol issued red notices for him and two others in 2021.Grechushkin "has been placed in detention for a maximum duration of 40 days by a court decision on September 7, confirmed on appeal," a Sofia city court spokeswoman told AFP.The authorities requesting extradition have 40 days to send the necessary documents to effect such a move, according to Bulgarian law.Grechushkin was held on an Interpol red notice at Sofia airport on September 5 upon his arrival from Paphos in Cyprus, a Bulgarian judicial source confirmed to AFP.Wanted by the Lebanese judicial authorities, he is being sought for allegedly "introducing explosives into Lebanon, a terrorist act that resulted in the death of a large number of people, disabling machinery with the intent of sinking a ship", the Bulgarian prosecutor's office said in a statement.Grechushkin was arrested during a routine check of passengers arriving from Paphos, according to border police."He offered no resistance. He repeatedly insisted on speaking to a lawyer and, after consulting one, he fully cooperated," Zdravko Samuilov, head of the border police at Sofia Airport, told reporters Tuesday.He informed the officers that he came to Bulgaria "for tourism", Samuilov added.Beirut is preparing to request the extradition of Grechushkin, a Lebanese judicial source told AFP.Authorities rely "on Mr. Grechushkin's statements and on the information he holds... to shed light on essential aspects of the investigation", the source said.The Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged cargo ship sailing from Georgia and bound for Mozambique, is widely understood to have brought the fertiliser to Beirut in 2013.The Lebanese source said investigators would seek to determine "whether the cargo that departed from Georgia was genuinely destined for Mozambique or if its true destination was Beirut, and whether the ship had previously transported other shipments of ammonium nitrate".After it arrived in Lebanon, the Rhosus faced technical problems and security officials said it was impounded after a Lebanese company filed a lawsuit against its owner.Port authorities unloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in a run-down port warehouse with cracks in its walls, according to officials.The ship later sank in Beirut port in 2018.An investigation into the blast has been mired in legal and political wrangling.Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the blast this year as Lebanon's balance of power shifted.This followed a war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the Iran-backed militant group, which had spearheaded a campaign for Bitar's resignation.Those questioned in the investigation include former Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, as well as military and security officials.