A drone has hit a commercial ship off the coast of Romania, killing at least one crew member with three more still missing, Romanian President Nicușor Dan said Friday. 

“This morning we experienced a security incident: A vessel was struck by a drone approximately 13 nautical miles from the coast, just beyond Romania’s territorial waters,” Dan said, praising the coast guard for saving nine sailors as part of the rescue operation. “Unfortunately, one sailor has died and three others are still being searched for,” he added.

The Khoryv ship, flying under the flag of Comoros, suffered significant damage, capsized and partially sank, according to Romania’s Interior Ministry.

The incident is the latest in a string of drone attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea. Dan told POLITICO last week that Russia’s intention was clearly to weaken Romania’s support for Ukraine in the war but vowed not to back down. 

NATO allies met Tuesday to discuss the threat to Black Sea shipping and Dan said Romania would receive “additional capabilities” to help defend the area. 

“Evidently, this is an incident within the broader process of escalation that Russia is pursuing in the context of its war in Ukraine,” the Romanian president said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “deeply alarmed” by “yet another Russian escalation in the Black Sea.” The ship was carrying Ukrainian and Azerbaijani crew, she said.

“These reckless attacks target innocent lives and openly defy international law. My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the sailor that was killed. And with the families of the three crew members still missing.”

Over the last month, drones have hit several cargo ships and chemical tankers close to Romania and Bulgaria — both NATO members — killing more than 20 people in total.

Reuters reported that the ships hit by drones in recent weeks had been near or heading towards the Sulina Canal, linking the Danube River and the Black Sea. This has become a key export route for Ukrainian grain and food oil after Russia attacked Ukraine’s own Black Sea ports.

This article was updated.

KYIV — Ukrainian interceptors still cannot use the internet at high speed to shoot down Russian attack drones or conduct mid-strike operations as of Friday morning, Ukrainian officials and a drone operator said, despite U.S. President Donald Trump saying SpaceX founder Elon Musk had lifted speed restrictions on his Starshield service.

“Morning tests show the speed limits of 140–160 km/h are still there, and the navigation isn’t working properly,” a Ukrainian government official told POLITICO on condition of anonymity.

“As of this morning, instances of connectivity loss at speeds of 161 km/h are still being observed. There is currently no confirmation that the restrictions have been lifted,” a defense ministry official told reporters on Friday.

Ukrainian drone units started testing speed limits from Thursday evening, shortly after Trump told reporters that Musk had restored Starlink. While some tests recorded speeds of up to 200 km/h over the Black Sea and noted an improvement, the drones still rapidly lost signal once flying above the 160 km/h speed limit.

“So, the key point is: We accelerate above 180 km/h, fly for a couple of minutes, the connection drops. It falls to 140–150 km/h and then is re-established — but the situation is better,” a drone pilot from Ukraine’s top drone unit known as Magyar’s Birds told POLITICO. “So it works better, but with constant connection interruptions,” the pilot, whose call sign is Leon, said.

The speed limit on Starshield, Starlink’s service designed for military purposes, stalled key operations and partially disabled crucial drone interceptors against Russian Shaheds attack drones.

Musk said that the U.S. government controlled Starshield, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the administration could not direct SpaceX or Musk regarding restrictions or slowdowns of Starlink services in Ukraine as it is a private company.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy argued the Starlink restriction was a planned operation to specifically restrict Starshield’s operating speed over Ukraine. The Ukrainian government said that it was not told why that had happened for days. However, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions.

“I don’t want to say. That’s a very interesting situation. My relationship with Elon is very good. I don’t want to comment on it, whether I called, or someone else called … The bottom line: he put it back,” Trump told reporters on Thursday evening.