Crews rescued after drone-linked fires strike commercial vessels in Black Sea

All 23 crew members of the Liberian-flagged tanker Aframax Rio were rescued after the vessel caught fire off Russia’s Black Sea coast, according to Russia’s Transport Ministry. The ministry said the entire crew were Indian nationals and that nobody was injured. The rescue took place as firefighters worked to contain a blaze on the tanker.

Russia’s Transport Ministry said the fire’s intensity later declined and that emergency crews had sufficient resources to continue fighting it. The ministry attributed the incident to an attack by an unmanned vessel. Images described by India Today showed a long line of flames on the water and a large column of black smoke visible from Sochi.

The report said the appearance was consistent with burning oil from a tanker, although it did not independently establish how the fire began. Accounts differed over the cause in the immediate aftermath. Ukrainian-aligned accounts claimed that the tanker had been hit, while Russian sources initially said only that a vessel near the port was burning and that the cause was unknown.

The later statement from Russia’s Transport Ministry identified an unmanned-vessel attack as the cause. The fire prompted local authorities in Sirius, a federal territory in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, to close beaches while emergency operations continued. Dmitry Plishkin, who heads the territory’s administration, said water and air quality were being monitored continuously.

Plishkin said atmospheric monitoring showed pollutant concentrations in Sirius remained “many times lower” than maximum permitted levels and posed no threat to health. The supplied reports do not give details about any oil spill, damage to the tanker or the vessel’s current condition. Euronews reported a separate episode involving a commercial vessel hit by drones off Bulgaria early Tuesday.

Its crew comprised 11 Turkish and seven Indian nationals. All 18 were rescued and taken aboard the Bulgarian ferry Dioscuria, according to that report. Two of the sailors were injured and were being taken to hospital in Varna, while the other 16 were being brought ashore.

Euronews did not identify the vessel or specify whether the attack was connected to the fire aboard the Aframax Rio. The report also said the crew of another cargo ship remained missing after its vessel sank in the attack. Rescuers found an overturned lifeboat and life jackets, but no further information about the missing sailors was provided.

Together, the reports describe maritime incidents involving unmanned attacks or suspected drone strikes in the Black Sea region, but they provide different details about the affected vessels and casualties. The confirmed outcome for the Rio was the rescue of all 23 people aboard; the Bulgarian account included injuries and an unresolved search for a separate ship’s crew.