Iva Mikhailova said that no one in Bulgaria had forced her to do anything. In a social media post, she thanked people for the assistance and support she had received and said that she did not want to be drawn into political disputes.
“The most important thing for me at the moment is to make a full recovery. I am receiving treatment and doing everything possible so that I can walk normally again. Please, let me receive treatment in peace,” Mikhailova wrote.
She added that she would not comment on the matter any further. She said that the support of Bulgarian citizens gave her strength every day.
Mikhailova, who holds Bulgarian and North Macedonian citizenship, is a party to court proceedings related to a fatal road accident. In October 2025, the authorities confiscated her passports and banned her from leaving Kočani. Her name was also included on the list of people banned from leaving North Macedonia.
On October 12, it became known that Mikhailova was in Bulgaria. That same day, she was admitted to the Pirogov hospital in the capital. The case triggered diplomatic tensions between Sofia and Skopje.
Mikhailova and her lawyer Nikolay Dimitrov said that they had crossed through an official border checkpoint, where she had presented her identity documents issued by both countries. However, North Macedonia’s Interior Ministry claims that no such crossing appears in the border authorities’ information system.
Subsequently, at the prosecutor’s request, the court in Kočani ordered that she be held in custody for 30 days. Mikhailova was also placed on an international wanted list. Her post is her first public comment on the matter, in which she emphasizes her treatment and recovery.