Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Bulgarian President Rumen Radev for his pro-Russian stance on the war in Ukraine.
According to Politico, Radev said during the meeting that "there is no military solution, and weapons will not solve anything."
"God forbid some tragedy should befall you, and you should be in my place. And if people with shared values do not help, what will you do? You would say: Putin, please grab Bulgarian territory?" said the Ukrainian president.
The president also criticized his Bulgarian counterpart for calling Moscowʼs invasion a "conflict" and not a war.
Zelensky rejected Radevʼs proposals for a diplomatic settlement of the war and emphasized that the Kremlin had launched "a war to destroy Ukrainians, not other states," and added that the Sofia government, which opposes Radev, did the right thing by providing weapons to the Defense Forces.
"Whatever your army has in terms of munitions, it will not be enough to fight with the Russian Federation. You don’t have a bad army, your people are good but it would not be enough to fight against 160 million people. That’s why it’s good to give [weapons] so [we] can defend [ourselves] and war does not come to you,” Zelenskyy said.
"Ukraine and NATO should have shared values. It can’t be otherwise. You cannot support Russia and support a balancing position because Russia wants to destroy NATO, wants to destroy Europe and the European Union; these are their goals. Do you get me?" Zelensky asked.
In the end, the Bulgarian leader said he had an offer but asked the TV cameras to leave before continuing his conversation with the Ukrainian president.
On July 6, Volodymyr Zelenskyi visited Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. He held talks with Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and President Rumen Radev.
Help from Bulgaria
In October 2022, the publication EurActiv wrote that Bulgaria is one of the largest non-public suppliers of weapons to Ukraine. In January 2023, the German publication Die Welt wrote that at the beginning of the war, Bulgaria secretly provided Ukraine with a third of ammunition and 40% of diesel fuel. At the same time, due to internal political disagreements (the Bulgarian president recently called the possible transfer of shells to Ukraine a "mistake" ), the shells were transferred secretly.
On May 4, 2022, the Bulgarian parliament allowed the repair of Ukrainian military equipment at defense enterprises but refused to provide Ukraine with weapons and ammunition.
On June 23, the Bulgarian government adopted two decisions on providing Ukraine with a new package of military aid.