Bulgaria says drone that exploded near gas pipeline was likely Ukrainian

Bulgaria's Ministry of Defence has examined debris from a drone that exploded near a compressor station on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline and determined it was most likely a Ukrainian-made decoy drone. The finding was cited in a statement from Bulgarian defence authorities reported by broadcaster BNT and relayed by European Pravda.

According to the preliminary assessment, the wreckage matches the "Maya" decoy drone, a model widely used by Ukraine's armed forces. The ministry stressed that at this stage there are no grounds to believe the incident was deliberate.

How the incident unfolded

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev had earlier said the drone crossed into Bulgarian airspace from Romania before exploding roughly 1,000 metres from the pipeline's compressor station, close to the former Kardam border crossing between the two countries.

Recent airspace incidents in Romania

The episode follows a string of airspace violations over Romania. On 26 July, Romania scrambled a fighter jet to shoot down a drone that had entered its territory, the third such intrusion in three days. The first time Romania used combat aircraft to down an intruding drone was on 24 July, when a Shahed-type UAV was destroyed. Those events came after multiple earlier cases of Russian drones crossing into Romanian airspace and crashing, mostly in border areas along the Danube, during Russian strikes on Ukrainian ports.