Bulgarian Navy destroys drone with mortar attached found near coastal village
A Bulgarian Navy specialist team destroyed a drone that had an 82mm high-explosive mortar attached to it, found near the village of Tyulenovo on Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast, according to a Defence Ministry statement on September 18.
The find was reported to the Navy on the night of September 17 and a Navy team departed for the site in the early morning of September 18, destroying the drone at 11am after deciding its condition made it too hazardous to attempt to move.
The drone was destroyed with a controlled explosion in a secured area with a radius of 150 metres, the Defence Ministry said.
People living in the nearby buildings had been warned to strictly observe the safety measures indicated to them, the statement said.
Bulgaria’s Defence Minister Todor Tagarev told reporters that the drone was from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“This war is inevitably associated with increasing risks to our security of a very different nature. We know that Russia is bombing Ukrainian ports, which are only a few hundred metres from the territory of Romania,” Tagarev said.
“There are cases of fallen remains of drones and other munitions on Romanian territory. We have no reason to think that this war will bypass us. Yes, there are risks for Bulgaria,” he said.
Tagarev said that the decision to examine and destroy such objects in daylight was the result of a risk assessment that there was no need to act at night, which would be a risk to the team.
(Photos: Defence Ministry)
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