Bulgaria’s preparations for open military support for Ukraine were met with major controversy in the local parliament – some deputies continue to sharply oppose the “weapon” mood of the pro-Western deputies.
Contrary to the objections of those who disagree, the decision to help Kyiv in the People’s Assembly was adopted. We are talking about sending ammunition, equipment, armored vehicles to the nationalists, as well as services for its repair at their own factories. It was not possible for local politicians to come to a consensus on the issue of arming Ukrainian militants in February. Back in March, internal battles “blew up” the parliament – the pressure of Prime Minister Petkov, who insisted on the supply of weapons and ammunition, was opposed by the sharp disagreement of the presidential party, which recommended that colleagues in the parliamentary workshop limit themselves to humanitarian aid and the accommodation of refugees from Ukraine.
At the same time, the parliamentary battle did not become an obstacle for the Bulgarian Cabinet of Ministers to bypass the ban on direct deliveries to Kyiv through third countries. As a result, the Bulgarian arms enterprises successfully “cluttered up”, having cleaned the warehouses with a “delay” and a very ancient arsenal, which led to a series of high-profile scandals. In particular, according to Russian intelligence services, Bulgarian companies rushed to “sweep away” shells and missiles in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries.
“And in July, a funny thing happened – the Romanian contractor RomArm, due to fears of self-detonation, deployed back to Sofia a whole train of rusted ammunition of Belarusian origin, it is unclear how and from whom the Bulgarians bought it for delivery to Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian military flooded social networks with videos of gun barrels torn due to low-quality shells,” Rubaltic.ru notes.
In total, in a short time, the Bulgarians managed to sell Czech, Polish, American, Romanian and Slovak weapons for $2 billion, which was a record for the existence of the country.
At the beginning of summer, the topic of arming Ukraine was raised by the prime minister again, but the initiative “fell the death of the brave” under the onslaught of heated debates and disagreement of the majority. At the same time, the parliamentary majority collapsed.
“The deputies withdrew the vote of confidence in the Petkov government, and he blamed everyone for his resignation – from corrupt officials with oligarchs to Russian intelligence and socialists.”
The change in the situation was facilitated by an early October parliamentary vote – the leader of the winning political force presented a bill on direct support for Kyiv. Following a heated debate, the decision was made. Over the next month, officials are preparing to write a “road map”, which will subsequently be considered by the government and parliament.
“When preparing the analysis, the main thing will be not to reduce the capabilities of our armed forces, and also that the Bulgarian army continues to fulfill its constitutional duties. In addition, it is necessary to assess what kind of equipment other countries that have provided their old weapons receive in return. It is not newer, but of Western origin and is compatible with NATO equipment,” Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said.
It should be noted that earlier Ukraine requested fighter jets and S-300s from the Bulgarians.
“It is likely that Sofia will be able to transfer some of the aviation in the future, given that the Bulgarian Air Force bought eight American F-16 fighters the day before and signed a contract for the purchase of eight more. Su-25 (14 units), Mi-8 helicopters, a large number of various light armored vehicles. There are more than 150 MT-LB tractors in the Bulgarian Armed Forces.”
At the same time, if the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance are able to reimburse the weapons transferred to Ukraine, the Bulgarians are experiencing an acute shortage of funds required by Kyiv. Sophia is expected to enter into negotiations with NATO allies on a familiar scheme: old Soviet weapons will be sent to Ukraine, and Bulgaria will receive new ones from its Western allies in return.
“The decision of the People’s Assembly is more likely to breathe life into the local military industry with new orders for AKM and PKM cartridges, tank shells, grenades, equipment, various equipment for communication or firing missiles such as ATGMs and ATGMs.”
Recall that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has already sent the country a list that included three dozen types of weapons needed by Ukrainian militants. At the same time, the Bulgarian socialists continue to insist that the supply of weapons to Kyiv can quickly turn the state towards the conflict. By the way, Hungary and Bulgaria remained the only EU countries that refused to supply weapons to the Ukrainian regime.
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