Romania’s Maritime Hydrographic Directorate published a new radio navigational warning on Sunday that Saturday’s dedicated Khoryv keep-clear no longer has the right position. The official English text, printed on the Directorate’s avize-radio page as ARN 155/2026 and cancelling ARN 154/2026, states that at 09:00 UTC on 25 October — 11:00 local — the partially sunken vessel M/V Khoryv was reported in position 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E. The vessel remains afloat, capsized. Three crew members are reported missing. All ships in the vicinity, and all ships transiting the area, are requested to keep a sharp lookout. Mariners are advised to keep a safe distance of at least one nautical mile from the vessel. It is a danger to navigation. Relevant information is to be reported to MRCC Constanta on VHF Channel 16 or by e-mail to [email protected]. The Romanian page, ARN 155/2026, prints the same geometry and the same three-missing line. Industry coastal reprints carry the notice as 155/26, active until further notice.
That is the working primary. Sunday’s notice is a wreck-move product. It is not a second Khoryv attack, not a completed sinking, and not a closed missing-person search. Saturday’s dedicated Directorate piece plotted the first public keep-clear at 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E on ARN 152/2026, with industry reprints as 153/26, after a 07:06 UTC capsize on 23 October. An intermediate notice, ARN 154/2026, cancelled 153/26 and moved the hull at 08:06 UTC on 24 October to 43-57.42 N, 028-59.42 E on the industry coastal reprint, still afloat and capsized, still three missing, still a one-nautical-mile keep-clear. Sunday’s 155/2026 cancels that intermediate and moves the hull again, about two nautical miles further south-southwest, to 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E. Friday’s dedicated Romanian Naval Authority naming remains the casualty and search piece: Comoros flag, crew of 13, nine recovered alive, one body recovered, three missing, 13 nautical miles abeam of Constanta, outside territorial waters. Masters who brief Monday as a new strike, as a settled wreck, or as a closed search will have merged four products.
What the warning actually printed
The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. BLACK SEA. ROMANIA. PARTIALLY SUNKEN VESSEL. Cancels ARN 154/2026. Published 25 October 2026. The report clock is 25 October 2026 at 09:00 UTC, 11:00 local. The position is 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E, repeated in the body. The hull is named M/V KHORYV. The vessel remains afloat, capsized. Three crew members are reported missing. Ships nearby and ships transiting are to keep a sharp lookout. The keep-clear is at least one nautical mile. Report to MRCC Constanta, VHF 16 or [email protected]. That is the product. The Directorate did not print a wreck buoy, a light, a sinking time, a pollution line, a cargo, a bunker figure, an IMO number, or an attacker. It did not close the three-missing count. It did not mark the hull on the bottom.
The move is the operator fact Saturday’s keep-clear could not yet give. Friday’s first plot, 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E, sat on the 13-mile Constanta offset. Sunday’s plot, 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E, sits about 11 nautical miles south and about three nautical miles west of that first position — a south-southwest drift of roughly 11 to 12 nautical miles over two days. The intermediate 24 October plot already had the hull about nine nautical miles south of the capsize. Sunday’s move is a further two-nautical-mile south-southwest shift in about 25 hours, not a teleport and not a second casualty. A one-nautical-mile keep-clear around the new position is a new plotted circle. The old 44-06.59 N circle is no longer the working instrument. Constanta, Midia and Mangalia are not closed by this notice. The Sulina approaches are not closed by this notice. Do not brief a Romanian port shutdown from a drifting, still-afloat inverted hull.
The missing-crew line is still open. Friday’s Authority count was nine alive, one dead, three missing. Saturday’s first wreck notice repeated the three-missing figure. Sunday’s notice repeats it again and still asks every transiting hull to keep a lookout. It does not close the search. It does not revise the dead or the recovered. Romanian rescue-agency colour on Saturday evening said search from Constanta berth 78 was suspended because of poor visibility; that is industry and agency colour, not a Directorate finding that the three are no longer missing. Hold Romania’s 13 and three-missing on this product. Do not invent a revised casualty table from a position update.
What this is not, and the same-week hydrographic colour
President Nicușor Dan’s Friday drone attribution, and the Reuters NATO-flank charge, stay on Friday’s dedicated Authority piece. Sunday’s wreck-move notice does not repeat a drone, a state of origin, or a NATO tasking. Defence minister Ștefan Radu Oprea’s Friday explanation — Coast Guard first because the hit sat outside territorial waters — is still the response geometry. A hull that has drifted south-southwest toward the approaches does not, by itself, move the army’s territorial-waters window. Tuesday’s dedicated NATO extra-patrol-aircraft note and Thursday’s dedicated European Parliament / Romania CSAT file remain the last alliance and EU prints on this desk. Do not sell Sunday’s new lat-long as Black Sea Sentry, as an escort, or as a Joint War Committee circle change.
Open-register colour, already used on Friday’s dedicated file and still not an Authority or Directorate finding: IMO 8138712, Comoros, call sign D6A3168, MMSI 620999164, built 1983, about 119 metres, summer deadweight about 3,280 tonnes, ore/oil carrier on the registers. Voyage colour, also not a cargo declaration: last port Eregli on 21 October, AIS destination SVLINA, ETA 23 October 23:00 UTC. Sofia Globe’s ferrous-metals line remains media colour. The wreck-move notice names the hull and the new position. It does not confirm the cargo, the bunkers, or a pollution volume. Do not invent a slick from a drifted keep-clear. Do not recycle Wine Trader’s fire-and-abandon position, 45-00.40 N 029-59.92 E on ARN 144/2026, onto this Constanta-south offset.
Same-week Directorate colour, for the bridge folder, not as a second dedicated casualty. ARN 151/2026, published 23 October, still reports a dangerous drifting object observed at 231000 UTC in 43-53.20 N, 030-43.20 E, general drift south, keep at least two nautical miles, cancel 261100 UTC on 26 October. That cancel clock is today. It is a separate object, farther east, and it is not Khoryv. ARN 150/2026 still warns of live firing by the hydrographic vessel Căpitan Comandor Alexandru Cătuneanu on 26 October from 09:00 UTC to 13:00 UTC in the box 44-05.00 N 029-08.00 E / 44-15.00 N 029-08.00 E / 44-15.00 N 029-30.00 E / 44-05.00 N 029-30.00 E, cancel 261400 UTC. That box sits northeast of Sunday’s wreck position. Do not brief the wreck as inside today’s firing box. A further Directorate notice, published 23 October, warns of hydrographic survey and oceanographic research by the same ship on 27 and 28 October between 06:00 UTC and 15:00 UTC in a polygon west of the wreck, cancel 281600 UTC. That is a survey box, not a wreck buoy. Wine Trader remains the 15 October fire-and-unmanned notice at 45-00.40 N 029-59.92 E.
Operational implications
A named, still-afloat capsized hull that has moved about 11 to 12 nautical miles south-southwest in two days is a collision, MOB and SAR-traffic problem before it is a war-risk rewrite. Saturday’s dedicated keep-clear told masters to plot 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E. Sunday’s notice tells them that circle is stale. The working waypoint is now 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E, still one nautical mile, still three missing, still no wreck buoy and still no light. Later Friday imagery, already on the dedicated Authority file, showed only a sliver of hull above the water. The hydrographic text still says the vessel remains afloat, capsized. Hold both. A barely visible inverted hull that is also drifting is a radar and visual lookout, not a charted wreck symbol until the Directorate or the Authority says so.
The drift itself is the routing change. From the 23 October capsize to the 25 October 09:00 UTC report the hull has made good about 11 nautical miles south and about three nautical miles west. That track is toward the coastal approaches south of Constanta, not toward Sulina and not into the 26 October firing box. Masters inbound to Constanta, Midia or Mangalia, and masters running the coastal track, now have a moving obstruction rather than a fixed 13-mile offset. A one-mile keep-clear around a hull that has already moved twice in 48 hours will be wrong again if a later ARN reprints the position. Plot the 155/2026 circle, keep a lookout up-drift and down-drift, and expect the next numbered notice to move it again. Do not leave Saturday’s 44-06.59 N waypoint as the only wreck in the folder.
Charterers who still treat the Romanian coast as a quiet alternative to Ukrainian ports now have a drifted obstruction south of the original Constanta offset and an open MOB watch. War-risk underwriters will ask for the 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E position, the cancelled 154/2026 intermediate, the still-afloat line, and the still-open three-missing count. They will not be answered by Friday morning’s Authority statement alone, and they will not be answered by Saturday’s first keep-clear. Port State, flag and next-of-kin work remain with Comoros, the Ukrainian and Azerbaijani missions, and whoever holds the DOC. None of those names is on the wreck-move notice.
A pollution watch remains open because the notice is still silent. Friday’s dedicated file already told operators not to invent a spill. Saturday’s notice printed no hydrocarbon line. Sunday’s notice still prints no hydrocarbon line, no boom, and no closed beach. That is not a clean bill. Small combo / ore-oil hulls carry fuel. A hull that remains afloat and inverted after two days of drift can still release. Masters inbound to Constanta, Midia or Mangalia should expect SAR and Coast Guard traffic, a one-mile keep-clear around a new position, and a lookout for persons in the water, not a completed wreck-removal order. Do not treat the canal, the roadstead or the port as closed unless the Authority or the harbour master says so.
What Operators Should Note
- Log a moved wreck, not a second Khoryv attack. Directorate ARN 155/2026, published 25 October, cancels ARN 154/2026. Report clock 09:00 UTC / 11:00 local 25 October. Position 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E. Hull named M/V KHORYV. Remains afloat, capsized. Three missing. One-nautical-mile keep-clear. Report to MRCC Constanta, VHF 16 or [email protected]. Saturday’s dedicated 152/2026 / 153/26 keep-clear at 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E is no longer the working instrument. The 24 October intermediate, ARN 154/2026 at 43-57.42 N, is cancelled. This is not Wine Trader, not Saturday’s territorial-waters Geran intercept, and not the EP / CSAT vote.
- Plot the new circle and retire the old one. The hull has made good about 11 nautical miles south and about three nautical miles west of Friday’s capsize position, and about two nautical miles south-southwest of Saturday’s intermediate. Constanta, Midia, Mangalia and the Sulina Canal are not closed by this notice. Keep at least one nautical mile from the new position. Keep a lookout up-drift and down-drift. Do not assume the wreck is lit, buoyed or on the bottom. Later Friday imagery showed only a sliver of hull. The notice still says afloat and capsized.
- Hold Friday’s crew table. Do not invent a new one. Authority: crew 13, ten Ukrainian, three Azerbaijani, nine alive, one dead, three missing. ARN 155/2026 repeats three missing and does not revise the dead or the recovered. Saturday-evening rescue-agency colour that the search was suspended for visibility stays colour. Do not close the search from a position update.
- Keep presidential attribution and open-register colour off this notice. President Dan’s drone and Russia-escalation line stay on Friday’s dedicated Authority piece. IMO 8138712, ore/oil, 1983, about 3,280 dwt, Eregli–Sulina AIS colour and ferrous-metals media colour stay as they were. The wreck-move notice names the hull and the new position only. No cargo, no bunkers, no pollution volume, no attacker.
- Do not merge Sunday’s other ARN products onto this hull. ARN 151/2026 remains a separate drifting object at 43-53.20 N, 030-43.20 E, two-mile keep-clear, south set, cancel 261100 UTC 26 October. ARN 150/2026 is today’s 09:00–13:00 UTC live-firing box northeast of the wreck, cancel 261400 UTC. The 27–28 October survey polygon is a research box, not a wreck buoy. Wine Trader remains ARN 144/2026 at 45-00.40 N 029-59.92 E. Keep each on its own sheet.
- Leave NATO, EP and Friday’s casualty file where they are. Tuesday’s extra patrol-aircraft note remains the last alliance print. Thursday’s EP 432-52-88 / CSAT file remains a consider-operation vote plus a coastal-state capability order. Friday’s Authority naming remains the casualty and search piece. Saturday’s first keep-clear remains the first public lat-long. Watch a later ARN that moves 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E again, marks a wreck buoy, prints pollution, or closes the three missing — not a completed sinking and not a Black Sea escort.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining Sunday’s ARN 155/2026 position at 43-55.25 N, 028-57.40 E against Saturday’s first keep-clear and Friday’s Authority naming of Khoryv so operators can treat the Constanta-south offset as a drifted, still-afloat wreck and an open MOB watch, not as a second attack or a closed search.
