A drone strike sank a Palau-flagged cargo ship and set a Togo-flagged vessel ablaze about 70 nautical miles off Bulgaria's coast, injuring crew members; sixteen Turkish and Indian sailors were evacuated, and two seriously hurt crew were taken to a military hospital in Varna. Prime Minister Rumen Radev called it a "crude violation of international law" but said only that the drones were "either Russian or Ukrainian", prompting opposition leaders to accuse him of shielding Moscow. The row matters because it exposes divisions over how Bulgaria, a NATO and EU member, should respond to the war's spread into its waters ahead of the 25 October presidential election.