SOFIA, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s defense ministry said on Monday it had dispatched a special unit to inspect and defuse a drone carrying explosives that landed in the Black Sea city of Tyulenovo on Sunday night.
After the inspection, a team from NATO member Bulgaria will decide how to deal with him, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the team was sent at the request of the regional government.
“We can certainly assume that it (the drone) is related to the war that Russia has started against Ukraine,” Defense Minister Todor Tagarev told reporters.
“This war is inevitably associated with increasing risks to our security,” he added.
Tagarev did not provide more detailed information about where the drone came from and how it got to Bulgaria.
(1/2)In this flyer image released on September 18, 2023, a drone carrying explosives is seen on the Black Sea coast near the village of Tyulenovo, Bulgaria. Bulgarian Ministry of Defense/Filed via REUTERS Get license rights
The tourist resort of Tyulenovo is located 70 kilometers south of the Romanian border and across the Black Sea from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014 and now a regular target of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Police closed off the area on Sunday evening and restricted public access to the terraces of local restaurants, Marian Žečev, mayor of Šabla, which includes Tyulenovo, told Nova TV.
He said the drone was found on the rocks next to moored boats in Łulenov and described it as “a plane with standard ammunition”.
It was unclear whether the drone fell from the air or was washed away by ocean currents.
The Nova.bg website cited witnesses who said the drone was 3 to 3.5 meters long and had a container of explosives attached to it.
Fragments of a suspected drone were found in Romania last week following a new Russian attack on Ukraine’s Danube ports across the border.
Reporting by Stoyan Nenov in Sofia and Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade; Editing by Toby Chopra and Gareth Jones
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