Bulgaria’s new government says it will not provide arms for Ukraine

SOFIA, June 9 (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s newly appointed defence minister, Dimitar Stoyanov, said on Tuesday his country would no longer provide arms to Ukraine and urged Moscow and Kyiv to sit down at the negotiating table to end the war, the BTA news agency reported. 

Bulgaria, a NATO and European Union member state that holds a strategic position on the Black Sea, sent Ukraine anti-tank missiles, armoured vehicles, mortars, anti-aircraft guns and howitzers in 2024 and 2025, as well as infantry weapons, after a change in policy course. 

In 2022 and 2023 it did not officially export weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, but instead exported to mostly European intermediaries, with Bulgarian officials saying they could not control what buyers did with these exports.  

“It is not planned for the Bulgarian side to provide more weapons to the Ukrainian army,” Stoyanov said while presenting the priorities of his ministry. 

“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.”

There was no immediate response from Kyiv.

In March, Ukraine and Bulgaria struck a 10-year bilateral security cooperation agreement that includes joint defence production, intelligence sharing, and an energy corridor designed to route up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Ukraine.

Bulgaria’s government, led by former president Rumen Radev, was sworn in last month. Radev was known for his pro-Russian stance, but pledged to follow pro-EU policies after he was sworn in. 

(Reporting by Alex Lefkowitz; Writing by Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)