Bulgaria is delaying the delivery of 100 armoured personnel carriers to the Ukrainian army because the Defence Ministry has requested that NATO cover the transport costs, MPs from the ruling majority in Sofia told Euractiv Bulgaria.
The decision to send the machines was taken more than three months ago in parliament, and the Bulgarian Interior Ministry and the Ukrainian Defence Ministry signed an agreement for their delivery.
“Bulgaria can help Ukraine a lot, but this is delayed due to the fact that the administration of the Ministry of Defence does not work optimally”, MP Ivaylo Mirchev from the We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria ruling coalition said on Monday.
Defence Minister Todor Tagarev is constantly criticised for his slow actions by GERB (ENP) and DPS (ALDE), the other two formations that support the pro-EU government in Sofia.
“Bulgaria can help, but this is not happening at the required pace, and I hope this will improve. We voted on the decision for armoured personnel carriers almost three months ago, but in three months, we cannot transport a hundred APCs from Sofia to Ruse (a city at the Danube River in North-Eastern Bulgaria)”, Mirchev said.
Tagarev said the delay was because Sofia checked whether NATO allies could finance the transport. In the end, the cost was NATO’s Rammstein format.
“This is not an elementary transport operation because quite a number of train sets have to be engaged,” Tagarev told the state radio BNR on Sunday. The Defence Minister explained that the logistics are complex and the Bulgarian efforts are “appreciated by the Ukrainian side”.
Euractiv did not receive a reply to its request to the Ministry of Defence for specific reasons why the delivery of the APCs has not yet taken place.
“With this decision, we strengthen our Europe and the defence of freedom,” Zelenskyy commented when it was taken.
The issue of APCs and other military aid was also raised during the visit of the Bulgarian parliamentary delegation to Kyiv at the beginning of February.
With the latest package of military aid to Kyiv, the Bulgarian authorities promised armaments that Bulgaria has had since the time of the USSR – parts for C-300 missile launchers, old C-300 missiles, armoured personnel carriers, shells, mortars and other equipment.
In December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to Twitter to express his gratitude for delivering the armoured personnel carriers and the new military aid package from Bulgaria.
(Emiliya Milcheva, Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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