Bulgaria’s New Government Announces Plan to Halt Military Aid to Ukraine

Bulgaria plans to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine following the change in government.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov announced this during a briefing in Sofia, according to Bloomberg.

The new government, formed in May, has announced its intention to abandon further military aid packages, despite the fact that Sofia has already delivered 13 aid packages to Kyiv since 2022.

“Ukraine currently needs more people, not more weapons,” said the head of Bulgaria’s Defense Ministry.

He also called for the achievement of a “just peace,” the terms of which must be determined by both sides of the conflict.

Stoyanov’s statements effectively echo the rhetoric of Bulgaria’s new Prime Minister Rumen Radev.

The country’s former president has repeatedly spoken out against further military assistance to Ukraine from the European Union.

Radev also called for a review of the sanctions policy toward Russia, arguing that the current restrictions are harming the European economy. At the same time, he stated his intention to strengthen Bulgaria’s influence on the formation of common EU policy.

Sofia’s potential refusal to provide new supplies could have symbolic significance, as Bulgaria was one of the key sources of Soviet-caliber ammunition for Ukrainian defense forces during the initial phase of the full-scale war.

Despite official restraint in the first months of the invasion, Bulgarian defense products reached Ukraine through re-export mechanisms from other European Union countries.

At the same time, Bulgarian authorities did not disclose either the total value of the transferred aid or its detailed composition, citing security concerns.

The Bulgarian defense-industrial complex remains one of the largest producers of Soviet-style ammunition in the European Union, particularly artillery shells and small arms ammunition.

It was precisely these production facilities that played a crucial role in supplying Ukraine with ammunition during a period when Western countries were only ramping up their own production and adapting their defense industries to the demands of a major war.

If the Bulgarian government’s new policy is implemented, it will mark the end of a four-year period of official military support for Ukraine from Sofia and could become one of the first instances where an EU country publicly refuses to continue supplying weapons to Kyiv following a change in political leadership.

However, Militarnyi previously reported that nine countries have already withdrawn from the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine.