Update, 22 October 2026: The search for the seven missing seafarers of Wine Trader has stopped. Croatia's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs told the Croatian news agency Hina that the search ended because so much time had passed. The missing are a Croatian deck officer and six seafarers from Benin. The second Croatian crew member had light burns. He has left hospital and is staying in a hotel. Rescuers still cannot go inside the badly damaged ship, the Croatian newspaper Večernji list reported.
The Seafarers' Union of Croatia (SPH) said it has made a request through the ITF, the International Transport Workers' Federation. It wants the Black Sea area near the Romania–Bulgaria border to be declared a war zone. SPH General Secretary Neven Melvan said the aim is to give seafarers the right to refuse to sail there. They would also get the other benefits of a war zone. "People are dying in the European Union too," he said, as quoted by Hina (translated from Croatian).
Two tankers were hit by drones near the Romanian port of Sulina, where the Danube meets the Black Sea, on 14 and 15 October 2026. Seven seafarers from the San Marino-flagged chemical tanker Wine Trader are still missing. Five of its 12 crew were rescued.
The Romanian Naval Authority (ANR) said Wine Trader sent an emergency alert at around 07:00 local time on 15 October, reporting a fire in the ship's superstructure about 13 nautical miles southeast of Sulina. The ship was not carrying cargo. ANR's first count was four people safe and eight missing. In an update at 13:07 it said five had been rescued and seven were missing.
The ship's flag state, the San Marino Ship Register, said Wine Trader was at anchor and bound for Moldova to load vegetable oil. Its 12 crew were nine seafarers from Benin, two from Croatia and one from Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the master's first account, passed on by the company, a drone hit the crew accommodation at about 04:00, starting a fire. Five crew, including the master, fought the fire with the main and emergency fire pumps, while seven did not answer the roll call. Two more drones then hit the ship, one again in the accommodation and one amidships. The damage to the fire main ended the firefighting, and the five went to the bow, where a helicopter later lifted them off. The register said all five were in good health.
The first ship hit was the Comoros-flagged chemical and oil tanker Yara J, struck inside Romanian waters late on 14 October. Its crew were unharmed and the ship was towed to the port of Constanța, Reuters reported. Both tankers had been at anchor near the Sulina canal, a key export route for Ukraine.
Search slowed by rough seas
ANR sent a helicopter and the search and rescue boat Apollo of the Romanian Agency for the Salvation of Human Life at Sea (ARSVOM), Radio România Constanța reported.
Romania resumed the search on 16 October. A Black Hawk helicopter was to place four rescuers on board the tanker while a ship searched nearby waters, Reuters reported. Strong winds and rough seas have slowed the work.
None of the seven missing seafarers was found. On 22 October, Croatia's foreign ministry said the search had stopped.
Drones shot down over Romanian waters
On 17 October two Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter jets shot down two drones over Romania's territorial waters, the Ministry of National Defence (MApN) said. It identified them as jet-powered attack drones of the Geran family. The first was downed at 18:01 local time southeast of Sulina, and the second at 18:05 east of Sulina.
The ministry did not say where the drones came from. It noted that in the past week several merchant ships had been hit by drones in the Black Sea, including in Romanian territorial waters. A NATO military source told Reuters that the drones which hit the two tankers were of Russian origin.
Political reaction
Romanian President Nicușor Dan met Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on 15 October. In the post below on his official X account, which shows photos of the three leaders, he wrote that "commercial ships are being attacked and sunk" and that seafarers were being "killed, injured, and missing, very close to the shores of Romania and Bulgaria".
Post on X
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A NATO official told the Guardian that the attacks would be discussed at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO's main decision-making body, the following week. Bulgaria has asked NATO for combat aircraft and anti-drone systems, and Romania has also asked for more equipment, Reuters reported.
The tanker attacks came a day or two after the cargo ship HS Dignity sank off Bulgaria with ten crew unaccounted for (see our earlier report). Reuters counted at least five other cargo ships hit near the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria in the ten days to 16 October, with 23 sailors reported dead or missing.
What it means for crews
War zones for seafarers' pay and rights are set by the IBF, the International Bargaining Forum of unions and shipowners. The IBF list of 1 October 2026 has a warlike area off Ukraine and a high risk area in the northern Black Sea. The southern edge of the high risk area ends near Sulina. The sea off Romania south of Sulina and off Bulgaria is not in either area. In these IBF areas, seafarers get a bonus and have the right to refuse to sail. Check your own collective agreement (CBA) for your exact rights.
IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told the Chinese news agency Xinhua on 16 October that ships should avoid high-risk waters, including the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, until they become more peaceful.
Before and during any voyage to the Danube ports or the western Black Sea, check the latest Romanian and Bulgarian navigational warnings.
Ask your company for the current security assessment for the voyage, including for waiting time at anchor.
Make sure every crew member knows their muster station and abandon-ship duties, and that fire-fighting and life-saving equipment is ready.
Crewing managers should keep crew lists and next-of-kin contacts up to date for every ship trading in the region.
Cover photo: A merchant ship at Sulina, Romania, where the Danube meets the Black Sea, August 2023. The photo is illustrative and does not show the ships in this report. Photo: Oly23lid/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).
Sources: Hina: Seafarers' union seeks war zone status for Black Sea area off Bulgaria and Romania (22 Oct 2026), Jutarnji list / Hina: Sindikat pomoraca traži da se uz granicu Bugarske i Rumunjske proglasi ratna zona (22 Oct 2026, in Croatian), Dnevnik.hr / Hina: MVEP confirms Croatian seafarer missing, search stopped (22 Oct 2026, in Croatian), Večernji list: Hrvatski časnik nestao, a drugi ozlijeđen u napadu dronovima na tanker (22 Oct 2026, in Croatian), ITF Seafarers: IBF list of designated risk areas (as of 1 October 2026, PDF), Romanian Naval Authority press release via AGERPRES: five Wine Trader crew recovered, seven missing (15 Oct 2026, in Romanian), AGERPRES: Five crew members from Wine Trader rescued, seven others remain missing (15 Oct 2026), Radio România Constanța: ANR - fire on board Wine Trader, search by IGAv helicopter and ARSVOM SAR boat Apollo (15 Oct 2026, in Romanian), Reuters: Romania resumes search for seven missing sailors from drone-hit ship (16 Oct 2026), Romanian Ministry of National Defence: press information - update (17 Oct 2026, in Romanian), Romanian Ministry of National Defence on X: F-16s shoot down two drones (17 Oct 2026), Reuters via gCaptain: Romanian fighter jets shoot down two drones over territorial waters (17 Oct 2026), The Guardian: Seven sailors missing after drones strike tankers near Romania's Black Sea coast (15 Oct 2026), Nicușor Dan, President of Romania, on X (15 Oct 2026), Xinhua: Interview - IMO chief urges ships to avoid Strait of Hormuz amid escalating attacks (17 Oct 2026), San Marino Ship Register statement, published in English by Capital.gr: Drone attack on the WINE TRADER in the Black Sea (2026), Insider.sm: San Marino Naval Register says seven crew members missing (15 Oct 2026).
