The attacks on merchant ships show that the war in the Black Sea is entering a new and significantly more dangerous stage. They are already involved in a naval war in the Black Sea. This was commented by the chief expert in the program “Security“ of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Tihomir Bezlov, in the studio of “Live Day“ on NOVA NEWS.
The reason for the conversation was the attacks on two merchant ships in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone, one of which sank. According to Bezlov, the information available so far gives serious grounds to believe that this was a drone attack, and not a collision between vessels.
“You have testimony from the rescued Turkish and Indian sailors that there was an explosion. There is also one from the Bulgarian ship that tried to help the first ship. That is, there is already a lot of direct evidence that we are talking about a drone attack“, the expert pointed out.
Bezlov pointed out that at the moment the most important question remains - who is behind the attack. He pointed to information from Reuters, citing an unnamed source, according to which it was about Russian drones. The expert noted, however, that Prime Minister Rumen Radev has not publicly stated whose property the devices used were.
“If we are talking about Russian drones, then this means that this is not just an attack on ships carrying Ukrainian grain“, commented Bezlov.
According to him, this is what would make the current case particularly serious. He pointed out that one of the affected ships was traveling from the port of Galati, and the other - to a Romanian port. “This is the most serious incident for us outside the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in terms of an attack on ships“, said the expert.
According to him, there have already been attacks on vessels carrying Ukrainian grain. Expanding such actions to ships where it is not clear whether the cargo is at all related to Ukraine would significantly change the situation. "If you spread the attacks to ships that are not clear whether they are only carrying Romanian grain, then the situation becomes very different," Bezlov warned.
The expert commented that the maritime conflict already includes mutual attacks on vessels and port infrastructure. According to him, the Ukrainian side is attacking ships associated with the export of Russian oil, including vessels from the so-called "shadow fleet" that transport the raw material from Russian ports in the Black Sea.
Bezlov also cited an example of some de-escalation. According to him, under American influence, Ukraine has stopped attacks on ships believed to be carrying Kazakh oil loaded through the Russian port of Novorossiysk.