Bulgaria’s caretaker Defence Minister: Aid to Ukraine to continue, further opportunities considered
Bulgaria’s aid to Ukraine will continue, caretaker Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said on taking office on April 9.
“The battle that is being fought in Ukraine is also a battle for our national interests,” said Zapryanov, a reserve lieutenant-general who has been deputy defence minister four times.
He said that there are currently two aid packages that have been voted to be sent.
“We will try as much as possible to speed up the coordination of their transportation to Ukraine and to think about further opportunities for military assistance,” he said.
Todor Tagarev, who was Defence Minister in the Nikolai Denkov government from June 2023 to April 2024, was criticised by GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms for allegedly being tardy in supplying military equipment to Ukraine, in spite of parliamentary decisions on the topic.
Zapryanov said that the further options for military aid to be considered could include weapons and ammunition “whatever we can spare from our reserves”.
On February 28, Tagarev said in a television interview that Bulgaria was preparing a new package of military aid for Ukraine, which in financial terms would be several times larger than the arms and ammunition handed over to Kyiv so far.
The package would require a new decision by the National Assembly, Tagarev said at the time.
