Celebrations for Day of Bessarabian Bulgarians Continue in Ukraine's Izmail, Bolhrad

UPDATED Celebrations for Day of Bessarabian Bulgarians Continue in Ukraine's Izmail, Bolhrad

Dimitrina Solakova, Diana Dukovska, Valeria Skorich, Petya Petrova, BTA correspondent Svetlana Dragneva

Unveiling of the renovated monument to Bulgarian poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev in Izmail, Ukraine, October 30, 2025 (BTA Photo/Hristo Kassabov)

Izmail/Bolhrad, Ukraine,

30.10.2025 19:24 | UPDATED 30.10.2025 20:52

(BTA)

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The week-long celebrations for the Day of Bessarabian Bulgarians, October 29, continued in Ukraine on Thursday. Amid air-raid sirens, the restored monument to Bulgarian poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev (1848-1876) was officially unveiled in the town of Izmail. In the evening, Bulgarian folk singer Ilia Lukov gave a concert in Bolhrad.

Thursday's unveiling of the restored monument of Hristo Botev was organized by the Sveta Sofia Izmail Bulgarian community, chaired by Nikolay Ivanov, and by the Izmail State University of Humanities, headed by Rector Yaroslav Kichuk. The monument stands in front of the university building. The bust of Hristo Botev was unveiled on March 20, 1978 and is the first monument to the Bulgarian poet and revolutionary in modern-day Ukraine. The unveiling coincided with the 100th anniversary of Bulgaria’s liberation from Ottoman rule. The bust was created by Izmail sculptor Mihail Nedopak.

Official guests at the event included Marina Denoy, Deputy Head of the Izmail District State Administration, Bulgarian Consul General in Odesa Svetoslav Ivanov, Anton Kisse, Member of the Ukrainian Parliament and President of the Association of Bulgarians in Ukraine, Bulgarian Deputy Culture Minister Ashot Kazaryan, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, and Bulgarian folk singer Ilia Lukov.

Representatives of the town and local authorities, of the municipal council and mayors of Bulgarian villages in Izmail District took part in the flower-laying ceremony, together with faculty members and students from the Izmail State University of Humanities.

In her remarks, Marina Denoy stressed that Thursday's event holds a deep spiritual significance for all Bessarabian Bulgarians, as well as for herself as a Bulgarian by descent, as it unites the memory of the struggle for freedom with the yearning for peace and unity. "For us, Bessarabian Bulgarians, it is deeply significant that our guests from Bulgaria have arrived at this time, despite the difficulties and the ongoing full-scale military aggression against Ukraine," she said.

On behalf of Rodion Abashev, Chairperson of the Izmail District State Administration, Denoy thanked those who participated in restoring the monument, as well as those who preserve Bulgarian culture and traditions. "We thank the Armed Forces of Ukraine for defending the skies above us and giving us the opportunity to work, study and live,” she said.

A delegation from Dobrich, consisting of Mihail Stoev, Georgi Kazandzhiev, and Svetoslav Gochev, also attended the event in Izmail. For over thirty years, the Bulgarian community in Izmail has maintained friendly relations with the city of Dobrich, and the two cities are officially twinned. Gochev read out a congratulatory message from the Dobrich Scientific Council Chair to the Sveta Sofia Bulgarian community in Izmail and its chairman Nikolay Ivanov. The letter expresses sincere congratulations and gratitude to the Bulgarian community in Ukraine for its efforts to preserve the Bulgarian language, culture, and traditions.

Hristo Botev is closely associated with Odesa, Izmail, Bolhrad and Zadunaivka. In Izmail, Botev worked as a teacher from 1869 until the spring of 1871. Every year on January 6 and June 2, the dates of his birth and death, Bulgarian associations and organizations commemorate him with conferences and flower-laying ceremonies.

Since the resettlement of Bulgarian migrants to Bessarabia (today's southern Ukraine) in the 19th century, a portion of them later settled in Izmail on the Danube River. According to the most recent official census in Ukraine, Bulgarians in Izmail are the third-largest ethnic group, numbering nearly 8,000 people, or around 10% of the town's population.

Thursday's celebrations for the Day of Bessarabian Bulgarians included a concert by Ilia Lukov in Bolhrad, the second in a series of concerts with the free participation of the Bulgarian folk singer under the slogan "Ilia Lukov and the Talents of Bessarabia: 30 Years of Songs with Love." The concerts are an initiative of the Bulgarian News Agency, with organizational support from the Consulate General of Bulgaria in Odesa.

Addressing the audience at the concert, Bulgarian Consul General in Odesa Svetoslav Ivanov said: "For us, Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria, but for Bulgarians, Bolhrad is the capital of Bessarabia. It is a symbolic place that is very important for Bulgaria because we associate it with its monuments, the Church of the Holy Transfiguration, and the Georgi Rakovski High School in Bolhrad."

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, who also attended the concert, said: "Because of the place of the Bessarabian Bulgarians in Bulgarian history and the Bulgarian spirit preserved today, Bulgaria preserves and protects the knowledge of their heritage and language." "The rumbling generators that made this concert possible until the power came back on, and the [air-raid] sirens that provided the backdrop for the lighting of the renovated monument to Hristo Botev in Izmail, reminded me of how, just over a year ago, in June, journalists from Bulgaria and 13 other countries -14 including Bulgaria - from 18 media outlets came to Odesa, Bolhgrad, and Izmail, to participate in a global meeting that the Bulgarian News Agency organizes every year - the World Meeting of Bulgarian Media," recalled Valchev.

/DS/