Aug 28 (Reuters) – A merchant ship caught fire and sank off the coast of Romania in the Black Sea on Thursday evening, likely after being hit, Romanian President Nicusor Dan and authorities said.
The Romanian Border Police on Friday confirmed the fire on board a commercial ship sailing through Romania’s exclusive economic zone, but did not provide a cause.
Black Sea shipping and port facilities have been targeted repeatedly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, with the pace of attacks escalating in 2026.
“The ship was hit… it seems to have sunk,” Dan told journalists during a news conference in Chisinau, Moldova, on Thursday, adding that at present no information was available as to who might have been involved in a possible strike.
“There will be an investigation, it will be established, but it is not good for us to start speculating,” the president said. The event had taken place outside Romania’s territorial waters, he said.
All 12 people on board the merchant ship had been rescued, the Romanian Border Police said in a statement.
“Of these, 10 people were rescued by the border guards, one of them being injured, and two others were rescued by the crew of the merchant ship,” they said.
(Reporting by Anna Koper and Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Jan Harvey)
