site.btaVazrazhdane Tables Draft Resolution Cancelling Negotiations with Ukraine on Sale of Belene Nuclear Plan Equipment

The Vazrazhdane parliamentary group has tabled a draft resolution cancelling the negotiations with Ukraine on the sale of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant's equipment, MP Iskra Mihaylova told journalists here on Wednesday. She explained that her group wants the equipment to remain in Bulgaria and be used for the completion of the abandoned Belene N-plant project. Vazrazhdane expects other political organizations who in time have stated similar positions, such as BSP - United Left, to convince their current coalition partners it is high time Bulgaria showed sound reasoning and did not sell and gift away, Mihaylova added.

The negotiations on the sale of Belene's equipment still stored on site were launched in 2023, when the Bulgarian National Assembly tasked the Energy Minister to negotiate with Ukraine. 

On Tuesday, the Parliament of Ukraine approved the purchase of the two Russian reactors that Bulgaria obtained from Russia for the Belene project . The reactors will be used for an expansion of Ukraine's Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant, said Ukrinform, quoting a Telegram post of Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

Mihaylova told journalists on Wednesday that the price at which the negotiations with Ukraine are being conducted is the reactor's purchase price, which is literally no money. This is a gift from the Bulgarian State, she commented. "Given that there already is a decision of the Ukrainian Parliament that they can finish building nuclear units with Russian equipment and Russian specialists, I think it is already clear that Bulgaria too can do that," Mihaylova said.