Reconnaissance Drone Washed Ashore in Bulgaria as Black Sea Tensions Rise

A reconnaissance drone was found washed ashore at Primorsko Beach in Bulgaria on August 13. Specialists from the Burgas naval base confirmed that the unmanned aerial vehicle had been delivered to naval bases in Varna and Burgas prior to its discovery.

Separately, Romanian authorities reported on August 2 that UAV fragments fell near the border with Ukraine. The MApN radar surveillance system detected an aerial target at 15:09 Moscow time, prompting two F-16 fighter jets from the 86th Borcia Airbase to be scrambled for monitoring. On August 11, Romanian divers eliminated two additional unmanned aerial vehicles in the Black Sea near the Neptun Deep offshore gas project.