Bulgarian Presidential Office Criticizes Government’s Handling of Firefighting Equipment Shortage

President Rumen Radev’s office has accused Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov of manipulating facts and politicizing the serious issue of Bulgaria’s lack of aerial firefighting capabilities. The criticism was voiced by Dimitar Stoyanov, the President’s Secretary for Security and Defense and a former Minister of Defense, in an interview with BNT.

At the outset of the discussion, Stoyanov cited a passage from Bulgaria’s National Disaster Protection Plan adopted back in 2010, when Rosen Zhelyazkov served as Chief Secretary to the Council of Ministers under Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. The document, he noted, made clear over a decade ago that Bulgaria could not rely solely on ground crews and manpower to battle large wildfires and that the need for specialized aircraft was already recognized. Despite that, no significant progress had been made in acquiring such equipment.

Stoyanov countered recent claims by Borissov, who downplayed the scale of fires in recent years. Drawing on data from the Copernicus system, Stoyanov pointed out that in 2007, fires destroyed 680,000 acres. In 2023, 450,000 acres were burned, and in the current year alone, around 250,000 acres have already been affected. These figures, he said, underline the pressing need for firefighting aircraft.

The President’s office, Stoyanov insisted, has been engaging constructively on this issue. It has put forward a detailed concept outlining expert recommendations and a step-by-step plan to address the gap in Bulgaria’s aerial firefighting capacity. According to him, it is not the President who is politicizing the matter, but rather the Prime Minister, who recently made what Stoyanov described as a misleading and superficial claim that the President was pushing for the purchase of “Spartans” transport aircraft for firefighting purposes.

In reality, the concept presented by the presidency lists priorities in order. The first and most immediate step, Stoyanov explained, is restoring the airworthiness of the existing Cougar helicopters, which can already be used in firefighting operations. Only after that does the proposal move to explore acquiring specialized firefighting aircraft and, eventually, the potential use of Spartans. He pointed out that the document in question had been on Zhelyazkov’s desk since October 2024. Moreover, the Prime Minister himself had cited the very same Ministry of Defense report in parliament earlier this year - on January 31 - stating that the Ministry intended to purchase three Spartans. Stoyanov questioned how Zhelyazkov could now pretend this was solely the President’s idea, calling it a deliberate distortion of the facts.

Stoyanov also took issue with the recent remarks made by the current Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov, who claimed that the one million leva allocated last year had already been used to procure “Bambi buckets” and necessary equipment for helicopters. Stoyanov called that statement “extremely incompetent,” and clarified that the funding was approved following his own proposal during a National Security Council meeting in July 2023.

He added that during that meeting, a separate proposal - introduced by a representative from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms-"New Beginning" (DPS-NN), which he derisively referred to as “Nothing New” - put forward an 800 million leva plan to acquire two firefighting aircraft and three helicopters. In the end, however, the Council only approved funds for acquiring buckets and the accompanying gear.

According to Stoyanov, all operational Cougar helicopters are already compatible with aerial firefighting missions. There is no need for modifications; what’s urgently needed is maintenance and restoration of their flight readiness. In his view, the focus should be on bringing those helicopters back into full service rather than allowing the issue to be bogged down in political posturing.

Source: BNT interview