Zelensky on attacks on vessels in Bulgarian waters: Defense Forces conducted no operations in area
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine’s Defense Forces had conducted no operations in Bulgarian waters, where two civilian vessels were recently attacked.
He said this in an evening address published on the YouTube channel of the Office of the President, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.
Zelensky said that two civilian vessels had been attacked in Bulgarian waters overnight, one of which sank while the other sustained significant damage. He expressed condolences to everyone affected and stressed that Ukraine’s Defense Forces had conducted no operations in that part of the sea.
The president said that Ukrainian authorities were currently working through intelligence and special services to establish all available information about the latest attack on civilian vessels in the Black Sea.
Zelensky said that the latest tragedy involving civilian vessels continued Russia’s efforts to make the western part of the Black Sea completely unsuitable for navigation.
He said that Ukraine had clarified all the details with the Bulgarian side and that the Ukrainian Navy had contacted its Bulgarian counterparts. According to him, it had been established that the incident was a Russian combined attack involving maritime and aerial drones.
The president said he had instructed the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense, Ukrainian intelligence agencies and all Ukrainian services to cooperate as closely as possible with partners so that both sides would have greater capabilities to protect themselves.
Zelensky thanked everyone who was responding firmly to such Russian attacks.
He recalled that a vessel had been struck in Romanian waters the previous day.
He said that Bulgaria was now facing a similar incident and that Russia was seeking to continuously escalate the situation. He noted that Russian drones were increasingly entering Moldova and that attacks on vessels in the waters of partner countries had occurred more than once, while Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports continued. He stressed that there should be a clear response to what he described as Russian aggression and called for clear countermeasures.
As reported, on October 6, drones attacked two commercial vessels in the Black Sea off the Bulgarian coast, one of which sank.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev described the drone attacks on commercial vessels in the country’s exclusive economic zone as completely unacceptable.