Recovery · Bulgaria
Naval team recovers drone 1 km north of Shabla Lighthouse, Bulgaria
· North of Shabla Lighthouse
Coastal aerial-drone recovery; individual origin unresolved
On 28 August 2026 a naval team found and identified a drone (UAV) about 1 km north of Shabla Lighthouse on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. The date is the discovery and response date: when the drone came down, and the route it flew, are unknown.
The origin of this drone has not been established and no operator has been identified. Broader Russian or Ukrainian associations made for this group of coastal finds do not identify this particular object.
The drone was assessed as safe and transported to the naval base at Varna. No casualties were reported. Although Shabla is a separate recovery site, it has not been established that this is a different drone from those found elsewhere on the coast.
Attribution and uncertainty
- Origin / operator / attribution
- Individual origin unresolved; cohort-level Russian/Ukrainian associations do not identify this object.
- Investigation / uncertainty
- No final individual operator identification in collected release.
Sources · 2
Full record
Map positions are approximate anchors for the named place, not verified incident coordinates.
- Reported date
- 2026-08-28
- Date basis
- Discovery/response date unless described as report date; EEST
- Location / jurisdiction
- About 1 km north of Shabla Lighthouse
- Event categories
- Coastal/sea discovery; identification; recovery or disposal
- What was reported
- Found and identified by naval team.
- Aircraft / vessel / quantity
- UAV
- Origin / operator / attribution
- Individual origin unresolved; cohort-level Russian/Ukrainian associations do not identify this object.
- Damage / casualties / disruption
- No casualties reported in cited account
- Response / outcome
- Transported to Varna base.
- Investigation / uncertainty
- No final individual operator identification in collected release.
- Route / entry mechanism
- Found at sea/on shore; original flight route and crash date unknown
- Explosive payload
- Assessed safe
- Counting / links
- Separate recovery site; an additional unique airframe is not established.
- Research provenance
- Added during export source checks; absent from the visible chronological report
Record E082. Record fields keep the register’s original wording.