Two new strikes on merchant ships in the Black Sea in one night, one of which sank, once again raise the question of the risks to Bulgaria's national security.
"I saw a weak meeting. Radev should hardly have met with Mitrofanova now. The world sees and it has been proven who the aggressor is in the war. Volodymyr Zelensky said that he wants peace until we see the same from the Kremlin. We were afraid to call the aggressor "aggressor". We missed a few steps to focus attention," said former Interior Minister and ammunition expert Valentin Radev in "Denyat ON AIR".
According to him, the Ukrainian side is calling for peace, and the opposite is visible in the faces of Lavrov, Peskov and Putin.
Military tension in the Black Sea puts Bulgaria at risk
"We are in the war zone. The entire sea zone has been declared military, except for the territorial part around Romania and Bulgaria. There will still be occasions for such conversations, notes and the calling of ambassadors. We are an external border - both Romania and Bulgaria. Let them come from NATO and together we guard the sea. There are no foreign planes here, I don't understand why. Romania has Patriot - we don't have such forces", he added to Bulgaria ON AIR
According to Radev, without NATO and the EU we cannot defend ourselves.
"F-16s should be put into operation as soon as possible - we are not doing it. We have never been in such an unpleasant situation where the entire leadership is military. We don't have any modern means - GERB bought them. We are defenseless on our own - that's why we are in NATO and the EU".
Call for more investment in security
There must be trust in the institutions and we must clearly indicate who the aggressor is, the former interior minister is categorical.
"Let's congratulate our border police for going there, as well as the military. This is a dangerous operation - to board a ship where there was a drone and stepping on it could probably blow you up. "The efforts are important because then comes the budget and we have to allocate money for the army and the police," he added.