When a drone entered Bulgaria's airspace on Saturday and exploded in a sunflower field near the northeastern village of Kardam and about 100 meters (328 feet) from a border checkpoint with Romania, the immediate question was where the aircraft had come from.
Following an on-site check, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said the drone was a Ukrainian-manufactured Maya decoy aircraft used to activate and deceive the enemy's drone systems.
And while both Bulgarian and Ukrainian officials confirmed that the first drone explosion on Bulgarian territory since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was in no way deliberate, the case quickly became politically charged.The Kardam border crossing (pictured here) is close to a Bulgarian compressor station on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline route, which connects Turkey and UkraineImage: Mihail Ivanov/AFP
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine's ambassador on Monday and stressed that "any unauthorized entry into Bulgarian airspace is unacceptable."
Kyiv promised to cooperate fully in clarifying the circumstances of the incident.
