site.btaBulgaria Guarantees Its Own Security by Helping Ukraine, Defence Minister Tagarev Says

Talking to reporters on Friday, Defence Minister Todor Tagarev said that Bulgaria guarantees its own security by helping Ukraine. Helping Ukraine even minimally is worth it, the minister stressed. Tagarev attended the Annual Conference of the Foreign Minister with the Heads of the Foreign Missions of the Republic of Bulgaria, held at the Boyana Residence in Sofia.

At a closed-door sitting on Wednesday, Parliament voted to approve a resolution on the provision of additional military aid to Ukraine. The aid consists of defective 5V55R surface-to-air missiles owned by the Defence Ministry and rounds of 5.56x45 mm-calibre automatic-weapon ammunition which have been discarded by the Interior Ministry.

Answering a question about the security in the Black Sea, Tagarev said he was informed that there were prerequisites for incidents. "Russian ships are roaming around our exclusive economic zone, taking provocative and forceful actions against merchant ships of other countries. All this brings risks to our security," he said. In his words, there is no such thing as a Russian military exercise - it is just a pretext that Russia uses. By seemingly conducting an exercise, Russia is trying to block Ukrainian grain exports, Tagarev said. In his words, this also hinders the realization of Bulgarian interests, including economic ones.

Regarding the project for purchasing combat vehicles for the infantry, Tagarev pointed out that the Council of Ministers has worked very seriously on this project and has taken decisions quickly, but the National Assembly’s decision is still pending.