Bulgaria suspends military aid to Ukraine

Bulgaria will no longer send weapons to Ukraine, the country's Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov announced today.

The move solidifies the new Bulgarian government's opposition to European Union support for Ukraine, after pro-Russian Prime Minister Rumen Radev won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in April. Bulgaria has sent 13 aid packages to Kiev since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, but Radev described Ukraine's fight as "doomed to failure," Politiko reported.

"We have already made it clear that the war in Ukraine will not be resolved on the battlefield. We are witnessing a war of attrition and, no matter how much weapons are accumulated, the only result is the loss of human lives. It is time to sit down at the negotiating table," Stoyanov said at a press conference today.

Radev, a former military pilot, has invoked his military experience to argue that Ukraine should negotiate peace with Russia, and in May suggested that the EU should lead peace talks.

Although the country's new government has taken a friendlier stance towards the Kremlin, it has refrained from open confrontation with Brussels over Ukraine. Bulgaria is the EU's poorest country and is heavily dependent on European funds.

In addition to suspending aid to Ukraine, Stoyanov presented the government's plan to increase Bulgaria's defense spending to five percent of GDP, as required by NATO, as Radev had previously promised.