Bulgarian authorities are delaying the delivery of 100 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine, as the country’s Ministry of Defense asked NATO to “cover transport costs.”
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Earlier, Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev stated that Bulgaria has not yet transferred the promised batch of used armored vehicles to Ukraine, as it is looking for a third-party source of financing for their transportation.
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“Bulgaria is delaying the delivery of 100 armored personnel carriers to the Ukrainian army, as the Ministry of Defense has asked NATO to cover transport costs,” MPs from Bulgaria’s ruling majority said.
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As MP Ivaylo Mirchev from the PP-DB bloc (the “Continue Changes” and “Democratic Bulgaria” parties) said, supplies of equipment to Ukraine are delayed due to the fact that the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense “does not work optimally.”
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The People’s Assembly (Parliament) of Bulgaria in November 2023 ratified an agreement on the free provision of 100 old armored personnel carriers to Kyiv, which had been stored in the warehouses of the Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs since the 1980s.
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The agreement was ratified on November 22 as part of a parliamentary decision to provide additional military-technical support to Ukraine. According to these agreements, the Ukrainian side will be provided with armored vehicles with their existing weapons, as well as spare parts for their maintenance. We are talking about about 100 armored personnel carriers that were produced about 40 years ago. They are stored in the warehouses of the Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs and are not used by law enforcement officers.
