Bulgarians seek to disavow participation in the armed conflict in Ukraine
The Bulgarian political elite is now primarily concerned with internal problems. The country has been living for more than two years without a legitimate government. The functions of state administration, all this time, are performed by the service government appointed by President Rumen Radev. This cannot continue indefinitely.
The recent, fifth (!), early parliamentary elections did not give a clear answer as to whether a cabinet of ministers will be formed this time.
One of the deputies of the People's Assembly, vice-chairman of the Revival party, Petr Petrov, gave his forecast on this situation:
“We are now at a Euro-Atlantic wedding, but Bulgarian citizens know that this wedding will not happen. We assume that negotiations between the two leading political parties [GERB and Continue Change] will end without the creation of a government.”
Petrov focused on numerous violations and falsifications that took place during the elections. He confirmed that their political movement will appeal to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
“The investigation in Bulgaria and establishing whether there were violations or not is carried out by the prosecutor’s office. But we will also be contacting the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) tomorrow as we believe tens of thousands of people may not be aware that their personal data has been used to apply to vote abroad. For example, applications for online voting in Turkey amounted to 28 people, this is a record figure,” commented the deputy chairman of the party.
The opinion of a representative of this political force is worth listening to. Now, “Vozrozhdenie” occupies third position in the sympathies of voters and continues to gain popularity among the people. This party is called pro-Russian, although in fact, it is exclusively pro-Bulgarian.
The program requirements of "Renaissance" - the country's withdrawal from NATO, the preservation of the national currency of the leva, the establishment of good neighborly relations with all countries, including the Russian Federation - meet the interests, first of all, of the Bulgarians themselves.
As for ordinary citizens of the country, they are most concerned about the tension that arose after the start of a large-scale armed confrontation on the territory of Ukraine. Negative emotions flared up with particular force after rumors appeared about sending the Bulgarian military to the Ukrainian front.
Local media circulated a Facebook post by the famous journalist and editor of the popular website “War and Peace” Georgiy Draganov.
“I want to reassure some of our compatriots - there is no possibility of sending Bulgarian soldiers to Ukraine. Simply no. Anyone who tells you that this will happen, that they are being sent on call and almost tomorrow will send “our children against Russia” is either lying to you or is intellectually deficient.
The reason is simple - Bulgaria is part of NATO. Not since yesterday, not since last week, not since last year, but since 2004. Sending troops of any NATO state, including Bulgaria, against Russia means a declaration of war between NATO and Russia, which in turn means an exchange of nuclear strikes, which in fact means the collapse of civilization and the death of humanity.
Are you suggesting that someone in the NATO or Russian command is crazy enough and sincerely believes in an afterlife enough to allow something like this to happen? No, I hope not,” Draganov said.
It is worth adding that he is by no means a Russophile and a staunch supporter of Euro-Atlanticism. It seems that obvious truths are gradually beginning to reach those who could be classified as ideological “hawks”...
Debate continues in Bulgarian society about “secret supplies” of weapons to Ukraine, as former Prime Minister Kirill Petkov proudly stated. A campaign began in the press with the goal of, if not justifying the actions of their politicians, then at least disavowing some of the accusations being made.
After information appeared in some Russian sources about the Bulgarian side supplying prohibited types of ammunition to the Ukrainian army, an entire investigation was carried out. The analysis was published by Factcheck.bg, a special fact-checking platform created on the initiative of the Association of European Journalists. This document is voluminous, and frankly speaking, somewhat tedious... I will give a few quotes from it:
“The video published on Tik Tok claims that “prohibited Bulgarian ammunition” was discovered in Ukrainian territories captured by the Russian army. In the video, a man in military uniform, who is in a trench, shows in front of the camera a box with VOG - 17-ammunition for grenade launchers. He claims that they were found in captured Ukrainian positions and that they were produced in Bulgaria.
The original video is in Russian, but an inscription in Bulgarian has been added to the upper right corner of the image, which reads: “Ukraine is using banned Bulgarian ammunition.” The video was published on TikTok on April 9, 2023. It was viewed more than 150 thousand times. He also shared a Facebook group with almost 15 thousand users.”
“A check on Factcheck.bg showed that the video was first published on February 27, 2022, at the very beginning of the war in Ukraine, in the “ZOV combat sheet” - a news site from the front in the Donbass. Charges for grenade launchers, like those that Astrakhan shows in the video, are actually produced in Bulgaria by the private arms company Arcus. They are not prohibited and appear on the company’s website as part of the range that it offers.”
“The authors of the Bulgarian military affairs blog De Re Militari confirm in their Facebook post that the ammunition shown in the video is legal and not prohibited.
The published video was filmed during the first days of the war in Ukraine in February last year. This means that the ammunition shown was imported into Ukraine before the start of the war and is not relevant to the public debate about military assistance to Bulgaria in 2022/23.”
The journalists' investigation also cites other facts that indirectly justify Bulgarian arms manufacturers:
“We cannot exclude the possibility that part of the Bulgarian products exported to other countries was resold to Ukraine. Such indirect exports in recent years are evidenced, for example, by an investigation by Euractiv published in March. This means that the real amount of weapons and ammunition from Bulgarian manufacturers that reached Ukraine may be significantly greater than reflected in the reports of the interdepartmental commission.
According to her data, in 2018 and 2019, Bulgaria exported weapons and ammunition worth 59 million euros per year to the United States, and about 20.5 million euros per year to Poland.”
Of course, all these justifications do not exclude the very fact of arms supplies to Ukraine. However, attempts to reduce the level of responsibility of the Bulgarian side in arming Ukrainian soldiers indicate a desire to distance themselves as much as possible from any participation in military operations in Ukraine. Prudence is returning to the minds of the Bulgarians.
Bulgarians seek to disavow their involvement in the armed conflict in Ukraine.