Drone explodes near Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, Bulgaria

What happened

An unidentified drone entered Bulgarian airspace from the direction of Romania and exploded about 1,000 metres from a compressor station on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, near the former Kardam border checkpoint in Dobrich Province, close to the Black Sea. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said noise from the drone was detected by Romanian border police before a loud explosion was heard by a Bulgarian border-police patrol near General Toshevo; he said both Bulgarian and Romanian authorities had failed to detect the drone in their respective airspace. No casualties or damage to buildings or infrastructure were reported, though the drone was reportedly carrying a large quantity of explosives. Radev said Bulgaria would redeploy border-police anti-drone detection and countermeasure capabilities from its border with Turkiye to the border with Romania, and an investigation was launched to determine the drone's type and origin. Bulgaria's defence ministry later said there were indications the drone was of a type used by Ukrainian armed forces and that the incident was likely accidental; no group or government claimed responsibility. Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said the incident would be raised at a NATO North Atlantic Council meeting early the following week. The Trans-Balkan pipeline (part of what an opposition lawmaker described as the Vertical Gas Corridor linking Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Ukraine) has also been described as linking Turkiye to Ukraine. The incident follows a surge of drone incursions into Romanian airspace, including three drones Romanian forces shot down in late July — at least one confirmed as a Russian-made Shahed-type — and a Russian explosive-laden drone that hit a Galați apartment block in May.