Two Tankers Ablaze in Romania's Black Sea Waters, 8 Sailors Missing
The chemical tankers Wine Trader and Yara J went up in flames overnight near the Danube's Sulina Canal. Eight crew members are missing and a search is underway.
Two chemical tankers caught fire overnight inside Romanian territorial waters in the Black Sea. Eight of the 12 crew on one of the ships are missing.
Romania’s naval authority said it received an emergency alert from the San Marino-flagged Wine Trader in the early hours. Four of its crew are safe. Rescue teams were searching for the other eight on Thursday morning.
The second ship, the Comoros-flagged chemical and oil tanker Yara J, also caught fire. All of its crew are safe. Romanian authorities said at first it was not clear whether that ship had been attacked.
Both ships were anchored near the mouth of the Danube River’s Sulina Canal, the route that connects the river to the Black Sea. Vessels often wait there for days for their turn to enter the canal, held up by weather and congestion.
The Wine Trader had reported explosions about 24 kilometers east of the Danube mouth at Sulina, the BBC reported. Nearby ships said the tanker was hit by two drones. Russian drones were also spotted overnight near Ukraine’s Snake Island, according to the report.
Romanian officials said Russian drones strayed into the country’s airspace around the time of the fires. They stopped short of linking the drones directly to either fire.
A widening pattern
The fires follow drone strikes on at least five other cargo ships near the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria over the previous 10 days. At least 23 sailors were killed in those strikes, according to Reuters. Those attacks took place just outside NATO’s territorial waters. Thursday’s fires happened inside them.
Attacks on Black Sea shipping connected with the war in Ukraine have threatened to cause a global food crisis, Reuters reported, with Ukraine and Russia both major grain exporters. Ukraine has leaned harder on the Danube route as Russia has attacked its own Black Sea ports.
Romania shares a 614-kilometer border with Ukraine, much of it along the Danube. It has reported repeated breaches of its airspace by Russian drones over the past four years. Romanian officials have not said what started either fire.
