Bulgaria to provide more defensive support to Ukraine after Zelenskyy visit

(Update: adds info after Zelenskyy meetings with Bulgarian leaders)

Sofia, Jul 6 (EFE).- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Bulgaria on Thursday for a state visit to shore up support for his country’s Nato membership bid and its defense against Russia’s invasion.

Bulgarian prime minister Nikolaj Denkov agreed to provide increased military assistance for Ukraine, in the shape of training and medical care for Ukrainian soldiers.

Bulgaria is a major supplier of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, through third countries and as part of its membership of Nato.

But that position is fraught with controversy; the Balkan country’s president, pro-Russian former general Rumen Radev, has condemned the government for providing weapons to Ukraine, saying such support only serves to prolong the war.

Zelenskyy, however, insisted that the support he agreed with Denkov was “defensive”.

“It is a defensive package, not an offensive one, so that parents can protect their children. If we talk about artillery, it covers a certain distance that does not reach the territory of Russia, to prevent (the Russians) from returning to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy told a press conference alongside Denkov in Sofia.

“We cannot stand idly by and watch what is happening just a few hundred kilometers from our border,” said the Bulgarian prime minister, who leads a coalition of pro-European populists and reformists.

“We signed a declaration supporting Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration wherever possible. We know from our own experience the transformative power of integration: membership must go hand in hand with reforms. Ukraine’s place is at the heart of European security, in NATO and the EU,” Denkov stressed.

Following his meeting with Denkov, Zelenskyy met with Radev, who expressed his concerns over the reserves of the Bulgarian armed forces, while insisting that the “conflict has no military solution and more and more weapons will not solve it.”

“This is not a conflict, but a war, a war of attrition for Ukraine, to kill Ukrainians, and not other countries, thank God,” Zelenskyy replied to Radev.

On the eve of Zelenskyy’s visit, the Bulgarian government approved a joint statement with Ukraine supporting its entry into NATO “when conditions permit”.

In that statement, which the two pro-Russian parties in Parliament rejected, Bulgaria confirmed its “strong political support for the country in its struggle against Russian aggression to protect its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity”. EFE

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