MP: Ukrainians say they received Bulgarian Weapons but our Government says otherwise

Atanas Atanasov, co-chairman of “Democratic Bulgaria” (DB), described as "hypocrisy" the fact that Bulgaria declares that it does not export weapons to Ukraine, and at the same time "according to publications in authoritative Ukrainian publications, Bulgarian products from the military-industrial complex are on the 4th place of supply for the country invaded by Russia.”

"I would not like to go into details ... there is a hypocrisy here," Atanasov said on BNT. He added: "That is, our military industry generates products that go there, but we are politically afraid to take a position."

Although the co-chair of the DB referred to the Ukrainian media, it has long been said in the public sphere that through ceding and resale, Bulgarian arms production has reached Ukraine. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Kornelia Ninova periodically insists that Bulgaria has not exported such goods to Ukraine since the Minsk Agreements (2014-2015).

She even provided the National Assembly with an interim report on Bulgarian exports - since the creation of this government in December last year. For EU countries - the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain, we have exported military goods for 45,819,649 euros, and for other European countries - Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey - for 18,766,343 euros.

"Anyone see Ukraine?" She asked. However, she admitted that it is possible that from each of these destinations to which Bulgaria exports its goods and technologies, they will be redirected to Ukraine.

Today, Atanasov also pointed out that the DB will continue to insist that the Bulgarian parliament take a decision by which the Council of Ministers undertakes to provide military assistance to Ukraine - despite the resistance of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

"With the exception of BSP, which has openly stated that it would not support this, I see other political forces descending on this issue, including GERB. It should be clear - when we are part of the democratic world, we cannot be part of certain things from it, and to hide from others. I see fear in certain political circles in Bulgaria. September 9 will not come, a position must be taken,” Atanasov said.

At the moment, however, it is not known what the positions of "We Continue the Change" (WCC) and "There Is Such a People" (TISP) are. Individual representatives of WCC, incl. the speaker of parliament, the finance minister, expressed a personal position "For" military support for Kyiv, but there was no formal decision in the group. Slavi Trifonov's people (TISP) are also evasive on the subject.

Meanwhile, BSP’s leader, Kornelia Ninova had already threatened that if the National Assembly obliged the Council of Ministers to send military aid to Ukraine, she, as a minister, would not sign and the Socialists would leave the ruling coalition.

"It will not depend on her when the government makes a decision," Atanas Atanasov countered today.

In fact, the draft decision of “Democratic Bulgaria” does not specify exactly what help the government should send. And if it decides it can only send one cartridge, it will only send one cartridge.

At the same time, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the Bulgarian media ClubZ that Bulgaria may not arm Ukraine directly with weapons, but could finance its armaments, along with the other "neutral" EU state, Hungary. "Both countries are participating in EU funding through its member states for arms supplies to Ukraine.”

“So we can't say that they are not involved. If they did not participate, this would not be possible, because the decisions require unanimity. Hungary and Bulgaria have agreed to this decision and paid their share for the 1.5 billion-euro financing of arms supplies,” Borrell said.

Follow Novinite.com on Twitter and Facebook

Write to us at editors@novinite.com

Информирайте се на Български - Novinite.bg

/ClubZ

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!