site.bta"Tragedy, Suffering in Ukraine" Taken Into Account When Preparing BULGARIA 2025 Exercise - NATO Deputy Secretary General

Speaking to reporters following the launch of the BULGARIA 2025 emergency management exercise on Monday, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Sekerinska said that "whatever we do in this period is very much affected and taking into account the tragedy and the suffering in Ukraine."

"Let me use the opportunity to condemn especially the last really deadly attacks. Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 800 drones just two days ago, targeting predominantly civilians and civilian and energy infrastructure. This clearly shows that Russia is not really interested in peace. What we said at the summit in The Hague was that we stay with Ukraine and we will continue to support it politically but also militarily, Sekerinska said. She noted that what NATO has done by launching what is known as the PURL mechanism, which is aimed at supporting Ukraine in meeting its priority needs, particularly in the area of air defence, is "a very clear confirmation that we know that Ukraine's security matters and that we know that Ukraine's security and the security in the Euro-Atlantic are interlinked." "We call upon all allies to really increase this support in political terms but very much in military terms," the NATO Deputy Secretary General said. 

Asked how the mechanism works for non-NATO countries such as Moldova, Sekerinska identified two deliverables. The first one is the combination of participants: first responders, soldiers, paramedics, scientists. "We really want to use science and innovation to support our goals in dealing with civil emergencies," she said. The second important element is a very strong presence by partner countries. "We have 28 allies present and 18 NATO partners, who are also here with us from various parts of the world, from Japan to Colombia. We are very glad that we have a very strong Moldovan team joining us. Moldova is a very important partner for NATO and in our partnership program we pay a lot of attention to supporting each other in dealing with civil emergencies," she noted. 

Sekerinska and Interior Minister Daniel Mitov highlighted the scale of the exercise. "It is the largest of its kind because it combines a lot of elements. The technological dimension especially is something that I am very happy to see here because the combination of the human efforts during rescue missions and natural disasters combined with the technological development is the component which will enable us to react faster in a more decisive way," Mitov said. He added that he is eager to observe not only the level of preparedness but also to identify any gaps that need to be addressed in order to strengthen coordination — both among NATO partners and allies, and within Bulgaria, as all national institutions involved in disaster response are taking part.