Bulgaria and Hungary did not join the agreement on joint ammunition purchases for Ukraine. On Monday, such a document was signed by 17 EU countries and Norway, which is not part of the EU.
We are talking about the supply of one million shells for Kiev over the next 12 months. Among the countries participating in the market: Germany, France, Greece, Croatia, Slovakia, Austria, Netherlands, Malta, Luxembourg, Estonia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and Belgium. On Thursday, Spain joined the agreement.
9 countries, including Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, have not signed a general agreement, but almost all of them have bilateral agreements on the supply of arms to Kiev. All except Hungary and Bulgaria.
On Monday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said Hungary would not supply arms to Ukraine because it “wants peace”. And Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, accused of being pro-Russian, said Thursday that Bulgaria must first think of its own security.
“We will work with the European Commission to increase investment in our military industry so that we have more capabilities, more modernized production, so that we can replenish our stocks and help EU and NATO member states to replenish their stocks. But Bulgaria is not involved in the joint supply of shells to Ukraine,” Radev told reporters ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.
In December, the Bulgarian parliament voted in favor of supplying arms to Ukraine, but, as the country’s incumbent defense minister, Dimitar Stoyanov, later explained, this was a “ponctual action”.
For the moment, no regular government has been formed in Bulgaria and the parliament has been dissolved before the next snap elections (already the fifth in two years), which are to be held on April 2.
“If our next parliament again demands the supply of arms to Ukraine on behalf of the Bulgarian army, may it have the courage to form a regular, non-service government and be accountable to the Bulgarian citizens” , Radev said in a meeting. in Brussels.
At the same time, Radev stressed that Bulgaria is ready to introduce technology for the production of 155 mm projectiles according to NATO standards and supply them to member countries of the alliance upon their request. When asked how Bulgaria will control whether the shells produced by it will then be sent to Ukraine, Radev said that “checking this is the business of journalists”. He also noted that before sending shells to other NATO countries, Bulgaria would ask who their “final recipient” is.
