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Romanian President Nicusor Dan has accused Russia of escalating its attacks on NATO's eastern flank after a drone strike sank a cargo ship off Romania's Black Sea coast on Friday, killing at least one sailor with three still missing. It is the latest in a sudden surge of deadly attacks on commercial shipping that has made the western Black Sea one of the world's most dangerous waterways.
The sinking of the Khoryv
Romania's naval authority said the Comoros-flagged Khoryv, with a crew of 13 Ukrainian and Azerbaijani sailors, sent a distress signal 13 nautical miles off the port of Constanta, just beyond Romanian territorial waters. Nine sailors were rescued from the water, three were missing and one body was recovered. Video released by Romanian authorities showed only a small part of the capsized tanker's hull still visible above the waves as emergency vessels searched the surrounding waters in choppy seas and high wind, Reuters reports.
"It is part of Russia's escalation process in its war in Ukraine," President Dan told reporters, later saying the ship had been hit by a drone. Russia has not publicly responded to the accusation.
A two-week surge in attacks on shipping
The Khoryv is not an isolated incident. The past two weeks have seen at least seven cargo ships hit off the coasts of NATO members Romania and Bulgaria, with some 30 sailors reported dead or missing. NATO said on Tuesday it would send more maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems and drones to the Black Sea — and on Saturday, Romanian jets shot down two of the latest generation of Russian drones over Romanian territorial waters, according to the Straits Times.
The vessels struck lately have either been anchored near or headed toward the Sulina Canal, which links the Danube River to the Black Sea. The canal has become Ukraine's primary export route — the country is one of the world's biggest grain and food-oil exporters — as Russia has attacked Ukraine's own Black Sea ports. Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria have all called on NATO to do more to protect commercial shipping.
The pattern should feel familiar: commercial vessels are becoming instruments and casualties of war at sea. The report on tankers hit by mines in the Strait of Hormuz traced the same logic in the Gulf, and coverage of Ukraine's strikes on Russian data centers showed how the conflict keeps expanding into civilian infrastructure. With NATO now reinforcing the Black Sea and Romania openly blaming Moscow, the question is no longer whether the shadow war at sea is escalating — it is how far it goes before a NATO member's patience, or a ship's hull, breaks for good.