Radev said Bulgaria would strengthen surveillance and move anti-drone detection and countermeasure equipment from its border with Turkey to the Romanian frontier. Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said Sofia planned to raise the incident at a meeting of NATO\u2019s North Atlantic Council early next week.<\/p>\n
Given the size of the blast and the volume of black smoke, the unmanned aircraft appeared to have carried significant levels of explosives, Stoyanov said, adding that such drones are hard to detect because of their relatively small size and low flight paths.<\/p>\n
Why the Trans-Balkan Pipeline Matters<\/p>\n
The Trans-Balkan pipeline connects the gas networks of Turkey and Ukraine through Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova. The system can carry gas in both directions, making it a potential supply route for Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
The blast occurred near the Negru Vod\u0103-Kardam interconnection point, which links<\/a> the Bulgarian and Romanian transmission systems. Officials reported no damage to the pipeline or other infrastructure.<\/p>\n The route has taken on greater strategic importance amid efforts to diversify regional energy supplies and provide Ukraine with access to gas from southern Europe, including liquefied natural gas delivered through Greece, according to Romanian gas transmission operator Transgaz<\/a>. The gas network operators of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine have offered capacity along the route for deliveries northward to Ukraine.<\/p>\n Russia Launches Overnight Strikes on Ukraine<\/p>\n Russia launched six ballistic missiles and more than 150 drones at Ukraine overnight, killing four people in Kyiv and the surrounding region, Ukrainian authorities said. Air defenses intercepted 135 drones, but the ballistic missiles penetrated Ukraine\u2019s defenses.<\/p>\n Three of those killed were a 3-year-old boy and his grandparents in the Brovary district outside Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Another person was killed in the Ukrainian capital.<\/p>\n The attack renewed concerns about shortages of Patriot interceptor missiles, which Ukraine relies on to defend against Russian ballistic weapons. Zelensky called for additional international support and tougher sanctions on Moscow as Kyiv seeks permission and assistance to manufacture more interceptors domestically.<\/p>\n Ukraine, meanwhile, carried out long-range drone attacks on oil refineries in Russia\u2019s Krasnodar and Samara regions, according to Ukrainian officials. Kyiv has repeatedly targeted Russia\u2019s energy industry, arguing that it helps finance and supply Moscow\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson<\/a> and Trevor Davies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drone carrying explosives entered Bulgaria from neighboring Romania and detonated near a major international gas pipeline on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3961,677,7,12,20,71],"class_list":["post-10089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bulgaria","tag-drone","tag-nato","tag-romania","tag-russia","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Unrelated](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26119762228701.jpg\"\/)
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