Ukraine announced overnight strikes against five cargo vessels in the Sea of Azov and adjacent coastal waters of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, while separately confirming that one of its naval drones exploded inside a major Romanian port — an incident that has raised fresh concerns about the spillover of the war into neighbouring NATO territory.
Ukraine's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said the targeted vessels were docked or operating near the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk — both under Russian occupation since 2022 — with their names painted over and radar systems switched off. He said the ships were engaged in "stealing" Ukrainian grain and transferring military supplies and fuel. Azerbaijan's foreign ministry confirmed that five of its citizens were killed in strikes on two of the vessels, identified as the Nastra and the Circon, though it did not attribute responsibility and noted the ships were not Azerbaijani-owned.
The drone incident in Romania centred on Constanța, the country's largest port and a critical hub for regional trade on the Black Sea. A Ukrainian naval drone — part of a group of five that Ukraine says were knocked off course by Russian electronic warfare jamming — detonated near an oil terminal on Friday morning. Romania's defence ministry confirmed the device caused considerable damage to a ship and nearby warehouses, though no casualties were reported. According to Romania's defence minister, Romaian authorities received only fifteen minutes' warning before the first explosion, after they identified one of the drones and contacted Kyiv. Ukraine was then informed that four drones had gone out of control and would detonate in sequence. The final blast was recorded at around 11:05 local time. Romanian Defence Minister Miruta welcomed Ukraine's acknowledgement but said earlier warning was essential "to take necessary measures and to protect civilians." Romanian President Nicusor Dan said Russia bore responsibility for diverting the drones through jamming techniques.
The incident adds to a pattern of war-related spillover affecting Romania. Just a week earlier, two people were injured when a drone struck an apartment block in Galați, a city in eastern Romania close to the Ukrainian border, in an incident Romanian officials attributed to Russia. A stray sea mine was also recently discovered on a Romanian beach near Vama Veche. Moscow denied involvement in the apartment strike and has yet to comment on the Constanța explosion.
The strikes come against the backdrop of an ongoing — and so far fruitless — diplomatic exchange. President Volodymyr Zelensky this week published an open letter to Vladimir Putin calling for direct face-to-face peace talks and a full ceasefire for the duration of negotiations. Putin, speaking at an economic forum in St Petersburg, rejected the offer and said he saw no reason to meet Zelensky. Russia's long-standing position is that Ukraine must withdraw from the four regions Moscow claims to have annexed — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — and abandon its NATO ambitions, conditions Ukraine has firmly rejected. The EU, France and the United States have backed Zelensky's call for direct engagement.