Today, Acting Foreign Minister Nadezhda Neynsky will participate in the memorial ceremony for the events in Bucha. After the start of the war and the Russian army's invasion of the city, over 630 people died. Today, ministers from the European Union will hold a special meeting, which will also be attended by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Kaia Kalas. Nadezhda Neynsky was also part of the Bulgarian delegation, headed by Acting Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov, who yesterday met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The two signed a 10-year security agreement.
BNT: How do you remember that day so many years later? Did you expect this to still continue and that there would still be no peace and no full recovery there?
Nadezhda Neynsky – Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs: "You know, there was an inscription in the Foreign Ministry, where I come from, which translated means – to live the war. Perhaps this is the greatest symbol of what is happening. What many people told me today - life goes on and we learned to live in the war. And there is a lot of pain, a lot of tragedy in this, and at the same time there is a lot of strength and stoicism. This is, perhaps, the whole impression I got from today. These people do not just read about the war, they live the war. And yet, they have remained human, normal, they think about what it will be like when peace finally comes. I expect that in Bucha we will not just remember these tragic days, but also think about how high the price of freedom is. I said today during the conversations with the Foreign Minister that it seemed as if my generation read about the war, about heroism, about modern patriotism only in books. Now you see what it means to sacrifice your life for your own country, because Ukraine is defending its people, its territory, the future of its children. And in my opinion, this will be the main message in Bucha."
BNT: What new things did the Bulgarian government show in this policy towards Ukraine? Of course, there was also a 10-year agreement on cooperation in the field of security.
Nadezhda Neynsky - Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs: "This visit is beyond the support for Ukraine, which Ukraine has no doubt about. Bulgaria has supported Ukraine from the very beginning of the war in every way. But what is new is that we talked about the future, about the period when peace will finally come for Ukraine. And about how Bulgaria and Ukraine can cooperate both in terms of reconstruction and in terms of the construction of transport, infrastructure projects, energy projects. How can we cooperate in the field of the defense industry, in which we also have a lot of experience, but Ukraine during this war showed incredible ingenuity in creating new military technologies. At the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, they showed me a large part of the drones that have become literally legendary. One of these drones the Russians call Baba Yaga. A huge drone that really has a turning point in the war. They are developing this industry extremely well and are defending themselves with these drones. So what we did today was to follow up on all the possibilities for cooperation. Here we should not forget what is signed for the Bulgarian high school, the care for our compatriots, our minority from here. And in fact, the Ukrainians who live in Bulgaria and the people with Bulgarian identity in Ukraine create this human bridge of friendship, which really makes the relations between Bulgaria and Ukraine very lasting, very understandable. I joked during the press conferences a while ago, when I was giving a speech with the Foreign Minister, that at first I couldn't find the microphones, the headphones, so that I could understand Ukrainian, but I understood maybe 60-70% of what he said. So there is something very strong in this symbolism and that is that on the basis of trust and friendship, very useful partnerships can be built, from now on in various spheres of the economy, I repeat, the military industry. Of course, a very important point that we discussed is the fight against disinformation and hybrid attacks."
BNT: For the first time in bilateral relations, Ukraine has come to the official cabinet and for the first time, representatives of the official cabinet have come to Ukraine. What do we want to say with this visit here? First, an official cabinet has come here and secondly, this is the first visit within bilateral relations…
Nadezhda Neynsky – Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs: "What our friends from Ukraine also mentioned is that they highly appreciate, including our courage to come today and with such a large delegation. Many countries that support us are not willing to travel so many kilometers to demonstrate this support. I believe that friendships become evident in difficult times, because when everything is fine, it is very easy to be friends with someone. And true friendships are recognized in moments of difficulty, of great trials. Ukraine is literally facing great trials. If before there was, we know the Famine, now they are talking about the Holodomor, about the cold that they were subjected to by the Russian Federation. So the interruption of the electricity supply, all the psychological, military and any other harassment of them is something that is certainly painful, but it tempers character and today I saw people with character.