Bulgaria sees no grounds for invoking NATO Articles 4 and 5 after drone attacks in the Black Sea

Bulgaria sees no grounds for invoking NATO Articles 4 and 5 following drone attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea off its coast.

This was reported by the Bulgarian outlet BNT.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev explained that one of the key factors is the location of the incident: the attack occurred in the country’s exclusive economic zone, not in its territorial waters. According to him, the matter has already been raised with NATO and the European Union, but it is currently impossible to determine precisely from which country the drones were launched.

“Bulgaria cannot confirm whether the drones were Russian or Ukrainian; to do so, it is necessary either to find the drone wreckage or to receive an acknowledgment of responsibility,” — Radev stated.

Earlier the same day, two commercial vessels were attacked by drones off the Bulgarian coast for the first time since the war began. One of them sank.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the drones were Russian. However, Sofia disagreed. Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov called the claims about the Russian origin of the UAVs “guesses and speculation.”