In a bTV interview on Wednedsay morning, Defence Minister Todor Tagarev stressed that Bulgaria will not send soldiers to Ukraine, and that there is no change in Bulgaria's position and this issue is not being discussed.
European leaders met two days ago in Paris at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, who called for more support for Ukraine. After the meeting, he said that sending Western ground troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out in the future, but that at this stage there was no consensus on such a decision.
Most countries said that this cannot happen, Minister Tagarev said about the meeting in Paris. The discussion was closed between allies who trust each other, the information is not public, he said in response to a question about whether there are countries that agree to send troops to Ukraine. The aim is not to give the Kremlin too much complacency about what Western allies might do. If a NATO member state somehow enters this conflict and then it somehow spills over into its territory, that will oblige the other allies to act. This will engage NATO in the future, and that is why these issues are being discussed in such extended formats, and not on a bilateral basis, the Defense Minister said.
Regarding the meeting in Paris, Tagarev also noted that there were decisions related to coalitions to support Ukraine in which the countries cooperate and coordinate their aid. "We have expressed a willingness to get involved in some of them, it's about helping the Ukrainian defence industry so that a large part of what Ukraine needs can be produced there as well. Another issue was about supporting vulnerable partner countries so that they can be better protected against aggressive Russian actions," Tagarev said.
"I was scheduled to travel to Kyiv, then came the invitation from President Macron to Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov, but since he already had a planned visit to Kyiv for the same day, we decided that I would go to Paris instead of him," explained the Minister of Defence.
Tagarev also commented on the aid to Ukraine and whether its delivery is being delayed. "This delivery is in progress, I am already familiar with the schedule," said the Minister, noting that the delivery will leave in a matter of days.
"The armored personnel carriers are the property of the Ministry of Interior, we did our best to support the process of preparing the agreement with the Ukrainian side, to which the Ministry of Interior is a party, and subsequently to prepare this equipment for dispatch," explained Tagarev. He recalled that the last decision of the National Assembly, which overrode the President's veto, was taken last December. The dispatch of equipment is not an easy process and in quite a few cases it takes months, the Minister of Defence added.
Until the current Cabinet took office, the aid given to Ukraine was valued at 13 EUR million. At present, the aid that Bulgaria has provided only from the army warehouses is already valued at BGN 47 million, further specified Minister Todor Tagarev.
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