“The Defense Forces did not conduct any operations.” Zelensky said that ships near Bulgaria were attacked by Russian drones

Two merchant ships in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria were attacked by Russia on October 6. It was a combined attack by sea and air drones.

This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He said Ukrainian intelligence and special services were investigating all available information about the incident. However, he stressed that the Ukrainian Defense Forces were not conducting any operations in the area at the time of the attack.

At the same time, the Ukrainian Navy has already contacted its Bulgarian colleagues and established that it was a combined Russian attack using naval and air drones.

"This latest tragedy involving civilian vessels continues Russiaʼs efforts to make the western part of the Black Sea completely unnavigable," the president stressed.

He instructed the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, military intelligence, and all services to "interact as fully as possible with our partners so that they and we have more opportunities to defend ourselves".

• On the morning of October 6, drones attacked two merchant ships — the “Alfa Watan” under the Togolese flag and the Able under the Palau flag east of Cape St. Athanasius and the city of Byala.
• One ship sank, 18 sailors from the other were rescued. Two people were injured. Bulgarian authorities did not say who exactly the drones belonged to. Russia has not yet commented on the incident.

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