Drones sink ships near NATO countries in “unacceptable” attacks, EU says

The attacks represent the widening consequences of the ongoing war that escalated sharply with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Despite lacking much of a traditional navy, Ukraine has successfully challenged Russian naval control of the Black Sea by deploying both aerial drones and drone boats to strike Russian warships and ports. Ukrainian drones have also stepped up attacks on Russian-linked oil and gas tankers along with other supply ships. In a milestone for naval warfare, a Ukrainian sea drone even used a machine gun to sink a Russian kamikaze drone boat carrying explosives in September 2026. India has a strategic partnership with Russia that includes the Indian military using Russian fighter jets and air defense systems, while the country continues to purchase Russian oil for its energy needs. But many Indian citizens also work as seafarers on commercial vessels that have come under attack in the Black Sea and Strait of Hormuz, with three Indian nationals having been aboard the Royad Mammadov and one being injured in the attack. The latest drone strikes on ships off the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria coincide with a growing number of incidents attributed to Russian hybrid warfare or gray-zone tactics aimed at multiple European countries within the NATO alliance. Russian embassy officials have denied this, but the evidence continues to accumulate, with multiple European governments pointing to Russia. For example, Romanian military divers previously destroyed two Russian-made drones found floating in the Black Sea near the vital European natural gas project called Neptun Deep in August. A few weeks later, Romania scrambled fighter jets to disable a Russian drone boat loaded with explosives that was also discovered near the same offshore gas platform. Germany has also formally accused Russia of organizing an attempted explosive drone attack on Ukrainian cargo aircraft parked at Leipzig Airport in August. Meanwhile, Estonia has also described Russian special services as being behind an arson attack on the Estonian company Milrem Robotics, which supplies Ukraine with military robotic vehicles. Similarly, Poland has been investigating a fire at a state-owned satellite station using SpaceX’s Starlink communication service as an “act of sabotage” that aligns with a “new Russian doctrine of attack,” according to Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski as reported by BBC News. Much of the NATO alliance is still rearming and trying to adapt to modern warfare dominated by drones, which both Ukraine and Russia have already spent years developing and practicing on the battlefield. But the Russian-instigated hybrid warfare across Europe poses a different immediate challenge—can NATO member countries agree on a strategy for discouraging sabotage and other provocative incidents from a nuclear-armed adversary?