The Bulgarian services have data that point to Moscow as the organizer of the drone attack against two merchant ships in the Bulgarian economic zone of the Black Sea. This was stated by the co-chairman of "Democratic Bulgaria" Ivaylo Mirchev to bTV.
According to him, the information was received from a partner service of a neighboring country and was presented during the meeting of the National Security Advisory Council. Mirchev defined the Russian trace as the main working hypothesis of the Bulgarian services.
“Russia is behind the drone attacks in our economic zone in the Black Sea“, said Ivaylo Mirchev.His claim comes against the backdrop of an official statement by Prime Minister Rumen Radev on October 6. Then, after the attack, he said that it was not possible to establish with certainty which country the drones came from. The public statements on the case do not present details of the intelligence data that Mirchev is talking about.
What is known about the ships
The attack took place on the night of October 6, about 70 nautical miles east of Byala. According to data cited by Mirchev, one of the vessels - the ship “Kozi“, was transporting grain.
There is no accurate and confirmed information about the cargo of the second ship. Mirchev described Boyko Borisov's claims that there may have been weapons or military personnel on board as speculation.
“One of the vessels - the ship “Kozi“, was transporting grain. There is no accurate and confirmed information about the cargo of the second ship,“ said Mirchev.According to him, one of the ships was attacked simultaneously by two drones - one by water and one by air. A Bulgarian ferry captain testified that he saw an aircraft with delta wings, typical of the “Shahed“ drones.
The dispute over responsibility
Mirchev rejected as illogical the version that Ukraine carried out the attack. His argument is that Kiev has no interest in hitting ships carrying Ukrainian cargo. He also stated that Ukrainian forces in the Black Sea are attacking empty Russian tankers around Sochi and Crimea.
At the meeting of the KSNS, “Democratic Bulgaria“ submitted a written draft for an official position. The party was asked to send a note to Russia and provide guarantees for security in the Bulgarian economic zone. According to Mirchev, the proposal was rejected.
“The government is bowing down to Russian aggression“, said the co-chairman of “Democratic Bulgaria“.
Sources: dnes.bg, 24chasa.bg