Bulgaria delays the delivery of 100 armored personnel carriers for the Armed Forces: the reason

Bulgaria delays delivery of 100 armored personnel carriers for the Armed Forces. Photo: Shutterstock/Belish

Bulgaria is delaying the delivery of 100 armored personnel carriers to the Ukrainian army, as the Ministry of Defense asked NATO to pay for the transport costs.

This was reported by Euractiv Bulgaria with reference to deputies from the ruling majority in the country's parliament.

The decision to send the machines was made more than three months ago in the parliament, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine signed an agreement on their supply.

«Bulgaria can help Ukraine a lot, but it is being delayed because the administration of the Ministry of Defense is not working optimally,» MP Ivaylo Mirchev from the ruling coalition «We continue the changes — Democratic Bulgaria» said on Monday.

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Defense Minister Todor Tagarev is constantly criticized for his slow actions by the ENP and ALDE parties, which support the pro-European government in Sofia.

— Bulgaria can help, but it is not happening at the necessary pace, and I hope it will improve. We voted for the decision on armored personnel carriers almost three months ago, but in three months we cannot transport a hundred armored personnel carriers from Sofia to Ruse (a city on the Danube River in northeastern Bulgaria, note), said Ivailo Mirchev.

The country's Defense Minister, Todor Tahariev, explained that the delay was due to the fact that Sofia wants NATO allies to finance the transportation.

«This is not an elementary transport operation, because quite a lot of warehouse workers need to be involved,» said Todor Tahariev to the state radio of Bulgaria.

The Minister of Defense explained that logistics are difficult, and Bulgaria's efforts are «appreciated by the Ukrainian side.»

Euractiv did not receive a response to its request to the Ministry of Defense for specific reasons why the delivery of the APCs has not yet taken place.

We will remind, on November 22, the National Assembly of Bulgaria ratified the agreement between the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the provision of armored vehicles and corresponding weapons and spare parts to Ukraine. On December 4, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev vetoed a document on providing military aid to Ukraine in the form of 100 armored personnel carriers.

However, in December, the Bulgarian parliament overrode the president's veto on sending armored vehicles to Ukraine as aid.