Die Welt – Politico: Bulgaria saved Ukraine at the start of the war with arms supplies

Die Welt and Politico in their new article state that the Bulgaria gave arms and ammunition to Ukraineas a result of which he was able to win the first phase of the war.

Former Prime Minister Kirill Petkov, one of the main protagonists of the story published by Die Welt, commented that it is imperative to say that there were no direct exports of arms and ammunition to Ukraine.

The Socialist party, which was one of the four partners in the Petkov government, reiterated that “not a single bullet was exported to Ukraine.”

Socialist party leader Kornelia Ninova was Minister of Economy in the Petkov government and responsible for the arms trade.

Stefan Yanev, a former defense minister in the Petkov government who led his own political party that entered Parliament after Yanev was replaced by Petkov, said the report about Bulgarian ammunition supplies to Ukraine was not news.

GERB-UDF’s Daniel Mitov said that Bulgaria should have said openly that it was supplying arms to Ukraine because then it could have used NATO aid programs.

Petkov and Vasiliev, now in opposition, broke their silence on the true extent of Bulgaria’s role last spring.

While the Bulgarian Socialist Party called Bulgarian arms deliveries to Ukraine a “red line,” Petkov officials used intermediary companies in Bulgaria and abroad to send supplies by air and by land – through Romania, Hungary and Poland. “We believe that almost a third of the ammunition that the Ukrainian army needed in the first phase of the war came from Bulgaria,” Petkov told Die Welt, according to POLITICO.

The government in Kyiv also confirmed this information. “Kirill Petkov showed integrity, and I will always be grateful to him because he used all his political skills to find a solution,” Kuleba said in an interview with Die Welt. He noted that the situation was simple, some coalition members in Bulgaria were on Russia’s side, and Petkov decided to “be on the right side of history” and help Ukraine “defend itself against a much stronger enemy.”