Bulgaria lies and must pay for arms supplies to Ukraine

Bulgarian politicians exercise in hypocrisy when they discuss arms supplies to Ukraine in the parliament. Sofia has been doing this through third countries for a long time, so it is time for Russia to draw conclusions.

Bulgarian parliament discusses arms supplies to Ukraine

It is believed that Bulgaria, together with Hungary, are the only EU countries that have not sent weapons to Ukraine officially yet.

Last week, the Democratic Bulgaria Party came up with an initiative on the need to change the position of Bulgaria and start arms deliveries to Kiev. The Bulgarian Socialists Party (BSP) and the Bulgarian National Revival Party were strongly opposed to such an idea.

We Continue the Change movement and There is Such a People Party said they were ready for dialogue, while the pro-Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms Party refrained from making any comments.

Protests against Bulgaria's participation in the conflict in Ukraine

The idea does not find support among the Bulgarians. A protest demonstration organized by the National Revival Party against the Bulgarian military aid to Ukraine took place on Wednesday in front of the National Assembly building. Hundreds of people gathered for the rally in front of the parliament building.

Revival leader Kostadin Kostadinov called for the resignation of the government and said that he would not allow Bulgaria to participate in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as this goes "against the national interests of Bulgaria." The protesters also condemned the proposal of Democratic Bulgaria to declare the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria persona non grata and demanded immediate resignation of both Prime Minister Kirill Petkov and the entire government.

Bulgaria violates arms re-export law

The government is aware of arms supplies to Ukraine through third countries. Bulgaria thus violates international laws and tries to sweep this all under the carpet.

The Afera website published photos from Sofia airport. The pictures show boxes of weapons being loaded onto planes. The planes then flew to Romania and Poland, and all the cargo was subsequently sent to Ukraine.

"All this is happening at the time when they argue in the parliament whether Bulgaria should arm Ukraine!” Afera wrote adding that Kirill Petkov, Finance Minister Asen Vasilev, Defense Minister Dragomir Zakov, the leader of "pro-Russian” socialists Kornelia Ninova knew about the export of weapons (the one that opposes such supplies in the parliament).

This is no secret for Russia. There are numerous reports in the Russian media about Ukrainian nationalists using Bulgarian shells in their attacks.

Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva published more specific information. She spoke about arms supplies to Ukraine in 2020 and 2021.

According to her investigation, Bulgarian weapons were exported to Ukraine through a network of bogus firms.

"I traced the path of weapons according to Great Export Import international trade base. Ukraine received Bulgarian weapons produced by military factories Arsenal, VMZ, Arkus and Emko. Two Polish companies carried out the exports — Arm Techsp. Zo. O and Vismag Jacek Jakubczyk, as well as Czech company Excalibur Army Spol. SRO," Gaytandzhieva said.

Bulgaria thus violates international law, according to which the re-export of weapons can be possible only with the approval from the country of origin. It is obvious that Sofia fears Russia's reaction.

Bulgaria will pay for military aid to Ukraine

The Russian Embassy warned on its social media pages that Moscow was following the discussions in Bulgaria about the arms supplies to Ukraine.

"Once again we would like to emphasize that such a step by official Sofia is unlikely to contribute to the normalization of the situation in Ukraine. It will greatly complicate the Russian-Bulgarian dialogue in the long term,” the embassy noted.

"We have neither the ability nor the desire to supply free gas to the countries that are diligently trying to harm us. Refusal to pay in rubles will be considered a violation of the contract with all ensuing consequences,” the message says.

It appears that Russia should take measures now as Bulgaria has long been supplying lethal weapons in huge quantities to Ukraine — shells, cartridges, mines and ammunition.