So what hit it? Romanian media and the Naval Authority say a drone. Romanian authorities haven't confirmed that. Reuters and Euronews both say the cause of the fire is still unconfirmed.
No one has said who did it. Russia, Ukraine and NATO have all said nothing.
That's everything we know.
Why this mattersHere's why this one matters.
This ship was carrying Ukrainian grain. And it got hit right next to a NATO country's coast, close to an offshore gas platform.
The ship had left Izmail, a port in Ukraine. It was heading to Ravenna, in Italy. It flew the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis. A Turkish company, MG Shipping 5 Co Ltd, ran it.
The site is about 9 nautical miles from Pescăruș. That's an offshore oil and gas platform run by OMV Petrom. OMV Petrom says the platform kept running normally. Nobody there was hurt.
And here's the timing. Romania's President, Nicușor Dan, was meeting OMV's chief executive, Emma Delaney, in Bucharest when the alert came in. One outlet reported plainly that there's no evidence connecting that meeting to the sinking.
Romania is in NATO. It shares a 614-kilometre border with Ukraine. Russian drones have crossed into Romanian airspace before. The Black Sea off Romania has had mines in it since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia has gone after Ukraine's grain exports through the Black Sea again and again since the war started. So Ukrainian-aligned media say this drone was Russian. But no Romanian report, no Reuters report and no Euronews report backs that up.
Romania sent three coast guard vessels — Apollo, Artemis and Ares — plus a Coast Guard ship and a helicopter from its aviation inspectorate. A Black Hawk helicopter winched the injured off the ship.
The alert reached the rescue centre in Constanța at around 11:00 local time. One report says the first call came earlier, at 10:37.
So three questions are still open. Who sent the drone, if it even was one. Whether the gas platform was the real target. And whether this is a one-off, or the start of something landing closer to Romania's coast than before.
Nobody has answered any of them yet.
