Bulgaria will no longer provide weapons to Ukraine, it was announced on Tuesday, June 9th.
Instead, the newly installed defence minister, Dimitar Stoyanov, urged belligerents Kyiv and Moscow to begin face-to-face negotiations—a suggestion rejected by President Vladimir Putin last week. According to Stoyanov
It is not planned for the Bulgarian side to provide more weapons to the Ukrainian army.
We have already stated clearly that the war in Ukraine will not be resolved on the battlefield … It is time to seek a just peace that is determined by both sides.
Previously, NATO and European Union member Bulgaria sent Ukraine anti-tank missiles, armoured vehicles, mortars, anti-aircraft guns, infantry weapons, and howitzers throughout 2024 and 2025. Before this, it exported to mostly European intermediaries, who would typically sell on Ukraine while lending Sofia plausible deniability.
In March, Ukraine and Bulgaria struck a 10-year bilateral security cooperation agreement, including joint defence production and intelligence sharing. Bulgaria’s former president Rumen Radev, now heading up a new government as prime minister, was warned by Kyiv not to undermine its European Union support, although he has tried to stop Bulgaria equipping Volodymyr Zelensky’s military.
While Bulgaria backtracked on its earlier commitments, Ukraine was arranging to equip Latvia with drone/UAV technologies.
