Ambrey recorded 91 discoveries of unexploded ordnance, unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned surface vessels across the Black Sea basin between September 2, 2025 and September 7 this year, involving at least 105 individual systems.   Discoveries more than doubled between the two halves of the period, rising from 27 between September and February to 56 between March and August, an increase of 107%. The first seven days of September alone produced another eight finds.   The most striking change has been along the NATO littoral. Discoveries in Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish waters surged from 13 to 40 between the two periods, up 208%, while the combined Ukrainian and Russian total increased only marginally from 14 to 16. Ambrey believes finds in belligerent waters are significantly under-reported.      The nature of the hazard has also changed. UAV and USV discoveries climbed from 13 to 41, while sea mines and legacy ordnance declined from 11 to eight. Drones, rather than mines, are now the dominant floating threat.     At least 24% of discoveries were confirmed to be carrying live payloads, while another 58% were never publicly confirmed either way. Ambrey warned crews cannot distinguish a decoy from a live weapon by sight and should treat any drifting object as live until cleared by explosive ordnance specialists.      A large USV such as a Sea Baby can carry up to 300 kg of explosives, enough to cause catastrophic damage if detonated against an unprotected merchant hull.      The expanding maritime hazard comes as Ukraine dramatically stretches the range of its own attacks on Russian infrastructure.   President VolodymyrZelensky said Ukrainian forces struck eight infrastructure targets across six Russian regions on Thursday, extending from the Arctic Yamalo-Nenets region to the Caspian Sea.   Among the targets was Makhachkala Commercial Sea Port in Dagestan, Russia’s only ice-free deepwater Caspian port, which Ukraine claims has been used to import Iranian Shahed drones. The port handled more than 2.9m tonnes of cargo in the first eight months of this year, including over 2m tonnes of oil