Bulgarian Defense Minister: We have Surplus Ammunition

“Bulgaria has more ammunition than is needed for peacetime. We must not forget that we must leave armaments to serve as spare parts. We are currently in the process of cannibalizing equipment and the reason for this is the war in Ukraine.”

This was announced by the Minister of Defense Dimitar Stoyanov to BNT, making it clear that our country can only give Kyiv ammunition.

"I will act conservatively in relation to the decision of the 48th National Assembly. As Minister of Defense, my main goal is to preserve the capabilities of the Bulgarian Army. We will not slow the ball down. After all, we are a parliamentary republic. We started working on an analysis today, and the goal is to determine which abilities we must not necessarily lose," added Stoyanov.

After over four hours of debate yesterday, the parliament voted on a draft resolution on "providing military and military-technical support to Ukraine and strengthening Bulgaria's defense capabilities" and gave the government up to a month to submit such a proposal to the National Assembly.

"There is a conflict close to us and every single conflict creates risks for our national security. I have to think in exactly this direction - how to minimize these risks. We are thinking about modernization of the Bulgarian Army, we are working in this direction and we hope for results", the minister replied to a question about whether, by providing weapons, Bulgaria is not interfering in the war in Ukraine.

On the occasion of the statement of Stoyanov's colleague from Latvia that the positions of Bulgaria and Hungary are close to treason, the Minister of Defense stated that he does not feel like a traitor and that Bulgaria is a sovereign state that makes its own decisions.

Dimitar Stoyanov called the decision to purchase eight new F-16 aircraft good and added that it was absolutely adequate and timely. But this is only a step towards the modernization of the army. At the moment, 13 projects have been formulated, 3 of which have already been launched - the one for the F-16, for the infantry fighting vehicle and for 3D radars. According to Stoyanov, a project for the purchase of 155 mm howitzers is to be launched within a week.

"If we look at the neighboring countries, what they received as weapons from NATO - this is equipment from the 1960s-1970s. Is this what we want for the Bulgarian Army? I believe that modernization should be in another direction - acquisition of new, modern weapons," said Dimitar Stoyanov.

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