Bulgaria’s opposition demands answers on drone that exploded in country’s territory

Bulgaria’s opposition parties have demanded clarity about the drone that crashed and exploded in the country’s territory on August 8.

As The Sofia Globe reported earlier, a drone entered Bulgarian airspace on the morning of August 8 and exploded 100 metres inside the country’s territory, south of the Romanian border, Prime Minister Roumen Radev said after an emergency meeting of the Cabinet security council.

The drone exploded 200 metres from a gas compressor station and 100 metres from the former Kardam checkpoint at the Bulgarian – Romanian border.

Former parliamentary defence committee head Hristo Gadzhev of opposition coalition GERB-UDF said that he expects “to see how Roumen Radev’s government will protect our national interest.”

“If the drone is Ukrainian, I suspect that by tonight it will be all over the media. But if it turns out to be Russian (which is much more likely), the government will not start justifying and downplaying the incident, Gadzhev said in a Facebook post on August 8.

“Romania has already reacted much more firmly after a series of Russian drones in its airspace – including by expelling a Russian diplomat. I hope ours will not enter an apologetic regime towards Russia, as it did with Iran. If it is Russian, this will be another escalation and provocation by the Russian Federation towards Nato and Bulgaria in particular,” Gadzhev said.

Ivailo Mirchev, co-leader of Yes Bulgaria – part of the opposition Democratic Bulgaria coalition – said on Facebook that the August 8 incident near Kardam should be investigated as a potential attack against critical infrastructure of a Nato country.

“If a Russian connection is established, the message will be difficult to confuse – intimidation, testing our reactions and an attempt to show that European critical infrastructure can be reached,” Mirchev said.

He said that this is not a show of force, but rather a sign that the Kremlin is expanding pressure beyond the battlefield – towards the countries that are helping Ukraine and breaking Europe’s energy dependence on Russia.

The answer should not be fear, but should be more security, more allied coordination and even faster building of the energy independence of Bulgaria and the region, he said.

Mirchev said that Kardam is one of the key points of the Vertical Gas Corridor – the strategic project of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and other partners, which should transport more and more non-Russian gas from south to north (including to Ukraine) and strengthen the energy independence of the region.

He said that it is critically important that the investigation establishes the origin of the drone as quickly as possible.

Radoslav Ribarski of opposition party We Continue the Change said that Kardam was a strategic site of the cross-border gas pipeline infrastructure between Bulgaria and Romania.

So far, there was no evidence that the compressor station was the target, Ribarski said.

The origin, trajectory and purpose of the drone remained to be established, he said.

“The main question that urgently needs an answer: is this a coincidence or an attempt to strike at critical infrastructure?” Ribarski said.