The drones that hit a container ship in the Black Sea came from the east, outgoing defence chief Admiral Emil Eftimov said in an interview.

The ship, sailing from Haifa to Constanta, was hit on Wednesday off Cape Kaliakra. All 18 crew were rescued.

The previous development: All 18 crew rescued from container ship hit by drones off Kaliakra

Eftimov said no defence chief says outright who is behind hostile acts. Data on the drones has been passed to national and allied bodies, which will analyse it. The drones did not enter territorial waters, and beyond them Bulgaria has no power to act, he added.

When the threat appeared from the east, aircraft and helicopters were on alert, unmanned craft were launched and a response procedure was started. Bad weather limited the unmanned craft. Eftimov has been in constant contact with NATO command.

The area where the container ship sank will be surveyed, water samples will be taken and pollution will be monitored. How the vessel itself will be inspected depends on a coming decision on specialist equipment and diving gear.

The capsized ship is under constant watch. Warnings about it have been broadcast, and a navy ship is patrolling the area. An attempt to sink it did not succeed, and work around it continues today.

Eftimov believes the situation in the Black Sea has changed a lot in recent months. Until mid-July, the warring sides' communication lines were hit near Odesa, Chornomorsk and Novorossiysk. Now the reach is wider. Tactics are changing too: drones that were once only airborne are now also naval, and both kinds are used together.

This summer the Bulgarian navy responded to more than 100 reports of objects at sea. These were not made public, so that things stay calm, business goes on and freight rates do not rise. Bulgaria's efforts have grown since August, without escalation, and the country is not at war, Eftimov said.

Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey held a three-way meeting in Sofia yesterday. They discussed intelligence, surveillance, information sharing, a joint response mechanism and pooling of capabilities, which is Eftimov's own proposal. He said it must serve the interests of all three countries and respect national laws and international legal rules. Another meeting is set for Ankara by the end of November, where specific steps will be drawn up.

Bulgaria starts to deploy a new anti-drone system with a 150km range on Friday. No all-purpose system exists, and defence against drones is a set of actions, Eftimov said. The new system can be upgraded and includes surveillance from the air, and later strikes. Bulgaria has a real ability to act, various programmes are under way and new capabilities are being acquired, but this takes time.

Work has also started on changes to the defence law, so that the military can act in peacetime, the operational commander gets powers and the chain of response is shorter. Asked about a Black Sea corridor guarded by warships, Eftimov said access to the ports is secure and largely protected. He called for calm.

Eftimov has held the post since 2020. He said he is resigning because seven years is not a short time and a person must know when to step aside. He is happy with the mechanisms that work in the defence staff and trusts his team. Defence should not be discussed in public, because there are enough nationally responsible people who keep things moving, he said.

Follow-up: Sunken container ship off Kaliakra: no major damage expected, water samples taken