Drone sinks cargo ship Khoryv off Constanța, one seafarer dead and three missing

The Comoros-flagged cargo ship Khoryv capsized and sank in the Black Sea on 23 October after being hit by a drone about 13 nautical miles off Constanța. One seafarer is dead and three are missing. Romanian President Nicușor Dan said the ship sank after a drone strike and blamed Russia, which has not responded publicly.

The ship was on a voyage from Ereğli in Turkey to Sulina at the mouth of the Danube with a cargo of ferrous metals, and was due there that evening. The Romanian Naval Authority says she sent a distress signal at about 10:00 local time, when she was just outside Romanian territorial waters. She capsized after sustaining major damage, and video released by the Romanian authorities shows only a small section of overturned hull above the water.

There were 13 crew on board, ten Ukrainians and three Azerbaijanis. Nine were picked up alive by rescue units and a merchant ship that was nearby, and the body of a tenth was recovered. The Romanian Coast Guard and the Agency for the Rescue of Human Life at Sea kept searching for the other three in rough seas and poor visibility. Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the dead seafarer was Ukrainian, and four Ukrainians, among them the master, were treated in hospital.

Khoryv was built in 1983 as an ore-oil carrier and later traded as a general cargo ship.

The sinking is part of a run of attacks on merchant ships off Romania and Bulgaria. At least seven cargo ships have been attacked there in two weeks, and about 30 seafarers have been killed or are missing. Earlier in October HS Dignity sank off Bulgaria with ten crew lost, and Wine Trader was hit off Sulina with seven missing. More than 570 vessels have been attacked in the Black Sea during 2026, and seafarer deaths there this year now exceed those recorded around the Strait of Hormuz.

This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 28 October 2026.