The defense committee of the Bulgarian parliament on Tuesday approved the transfer to Ukraine of an unspecified number of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, which are in a technical condition that does not allow them to be used, but can be repaired by the Ukrainian army, the publication reports. EFE agency quoted by Agerpres.

The proposal still needs to be approved by a plenary session of Sofia’s legislature, but that appears to be a formality as the three parties that submitted it, two from the government and one from the opposition, have a large majority.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev specified that whole S-300 missile batteries will not be supplied to Ukraine, but only missiles for these systems, the technical condition of which does not allow their use, and Bulgaria cannot even repair them with existing means. .

For his part, the head of the Defense Commission in the Bulgarian Parliament, Hristo Gadzev, explained that this aid offered to Ukraine does not reduce Bulgaria’s defense capabilities, especially since this country has been trying to repair these missiles for many years and has not succeeded. , instead, Ukraine has the technical ability to implement them.

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, coming to Sofia in early July, asked Bulgaria for additional military assistance.

Bulgaria increases military aid to Ukraine

Later, the new Bulgarian government, led by the pro-Western Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov, announced a military aid package for Ukraine, which, due to differences caused by the problem in Bulgaria, he chose not to reveal in detail, but which was later confirmed: a hundred Soviet-made armored personnel carriers purchased in the 80s.

Bulgaria is a major producer of ammunition compatible, in particular, with Soviet-made weapons used by the Ukrainian army. The issue of military aid to Ukraine is controversial in Bulgaria, a country with strong traditional ties to Russia.

While the former Prime Minister, also pro-Western Kyril Petkov (fired last year after a vote of no confidence) strongly supported the provision of military aid to Ukraine, President Rumen Radev opposed it.

Despite this opposition from the president, the Petkov government secretly supplied arms, ammunition and fuel to Ukraine from the first days of the Russian invasion, and since then the Bulgarian arms industry has been operating at full capacity and last year had record exports of around four billion euros.

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